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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26341516">Like Rocks Scattered by the Sea</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blazing_rain/pseuds/Blazing_rain'>Blazing_rain</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Outer Wilds (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Crossover, Discovery, End of the World, Future, Gen, Magic, Minor Original Character(s), Outer Space, Post-Rebellion Story</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 03:29:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>28,770</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26341516</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blazing_rain/pseuds/Blazing_rain</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Eyes of different hues from beings of many species each look up towards the night sky, each seeing the beauty of the stars, wondering what might be out there. One sees salvation, one sees a resource. One sees a quest, one an adventure, one a place of rest.</p><p>All of them see a star go out.</p><p>The universe is spiraling out of control. The Illusion Homura Akemi made shatters as a search starts for any hope to save the world she changed. Unfortunately for her, this search brings along some consequences, from heroes to explorers, all beset on something different.</p><p>A race to the end of the universe has begun, though none of its participants know its destination and possibilities. With every step narrowing down the end point, hope is all that leads to the light.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Prologue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This story will contain spoilers for both Outer Wilds and Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Though it could be read without having played Outer Wilds, I would recommend it still. It's an incredible game.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Outer space is the antithesis of a hospitable environment, a deadly void more dangerous than any of its infinite beauty could make up for. An open nothingness permeated by freezing cold and deadly radiation, inhabited by billions of rocks and balls of flaming gas, so incredibly large yet almost insignificant on the scale of the universe they are born in. The concept of life in such a dark and unforgiving world seemed unlikely and the idea that such life would not only dare, but actively want to jump into this nothingness even more so. Still, that is exactly what happened: Spacefaring species have come and gone across the cosmos, all with their own curiosities and technologies, elegant mutations and cunning annihilations. Humanity, a species inhabiting the planet earth, only achieved this stage of civilization relatively recently. They went into space because they knew there was a future hidden there. Their information was limited, but they did what they could, travelling to their moon, to distant planets, learning everything they could. It did not take long before they moved to commercialize it, as they often did, offering trips to space for well-paying people, letting them spend time on the moon and creating enough funding for a well-developed colony on the planet Mars. Despite this success, humanity has never made it past their solar system themselves; They deemed it impossible to find anything there with the technology currently at their disposal. The rest of the universe was simply too far away.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And for the moment, this was mostly true. No human technology could make it to a new star within a human lifespan, data from satellites sent almost centuries ago was only arriving now. No human with access to space was mad enough. With a single exception, that of a ‘human’ who had hardly ever cared for the rules set in front of her, which she saw as no more than bounds keeping her ambitions in check. A ‘human’ that, at this very moment, was further away from planet Earth than any living being, studying the anomalies of the universe.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What would you classify this phenomenon as?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She spoke in a businesslike tone, showing almost no signs of the curiosity woven into her voice. Biologically speaking, she was completely human: She was bipedal, had four limbs with hands bearing opposable thumbs. Hair grew from the top of her head, long and black, while the rest of her smooth skin was covered in clothing, a plain black jacket under a similarly-colored dress, an unusual choice for space travel. The eyes, darkened purple and of unusual size, were the only part of her that showed her interest in the sights around her, narrowing with deep focus.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Based on the information you have provided as well as our observations, we hypothesize that this object is a residual effect of your apotheosis. A manifestation of despair akin to Witches, albeit an imperfect one. I do not believe we have seen anything like this before.”</span>
  </em>
  <span> A second figure replied through its mind rather than its mouth. It was a small, furry creature perched on the shoulder of the human. It did not look like something one would find in space, resembling a feline of sorts. It had white, matted fur with a purple, lizard-shape mark imprinted on its back. Besides a pair of feline ears it had a strange, second pair growing from its head, reaching down to its feet. Its red, beady eyes remained in a perfectly neutral expression as it and its inquirer inspected a strange object from the safety of a spaceship.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The object in question was a gargantuan ball made of vines, roughly the size of a planet. Some of these vines sprouted further, embedded in large chunks of land that seemed to me remnants of a different planet, remembered only by these glacier-like masses. It had multiple holes on its surface, large enough for a ship to enter, though its inside was obscured by a thick mist.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“We have also concluded that it is parasitic in nature. We believe a different planet existed in this place, shattered by this seed’s propagation. It is hardier than any flora we have previously encountered.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“How… concerning. Have you taken measures to prevent further growth?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The feline nodded. </span>
  <em>
    <span>“We are keeping surveillance of all known instances of this growth and have intercepted several of its seeds. The one we took from this instance will be sent to your home for study. Our prediction is that you can find some use in it.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The human hummed her understanding. “I will investigate this instance more thoroughly, first. You may study what you’ve found. Do not omit any information once you’re done.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She let the creature hop off of its shoulder. Then, without any regard for biological conventions, she walked to the ship’s entryway, opened the door and stepped out. It was at that point that her appearance shifted. Her back pulsed and tore open, sprouting two malformed wings as a black, feather-made dress manifested over her original guise. Then, as if unimpaired by the void around her, she flew towards the plant. The space ship lingered behind her only a moment longer, then took off. Finally, she was entirely alone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The human, or the being in the guise of one, slowly approached the plant’s core, eyes boring into its misty insides, spotting several bright lights piercing through the haze. She could feel an energy similar to her own, though it was so vague as to be worth dismissing entirely. She had seen despair crystallize many times and plants were one of many forms it could take, but none were quite as physical, quite as real as these. It had awakened her curiosity. She reached inside of herself, casting her senses out into the cosmos, across the universe with an unmatched awareness. It didn’t take long before she sensed other instances of this bramble-like planet, light years away from her and far away from Earth. That alleviated her worries; as long as earth was safe from them, she needn’t worry about them too much.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rather, it was what Homura Akemi couldn’t sense that distressed her a lot more.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The Quiet Shade</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The feline watched closely as Homura Akemi entered the construct, mind mulling over various theories it ascribed to the plant. After confirming Akemi’s successful entrance, it sent an order down to the bridge, asking the ship to return to planet Earth. Though it would usually leave this responsibility to others of its kind, a  hivemind-reminiscent species meant to travel in multitudes, its new ally had insisted that it come with her alone, letting the ship’s artificial intelligence command the bulk of their travel. It had not been particularly keen on the concept, but it did not want to bend the terms of their newly-forged allyship so soon.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Akemi’s rise to power in this world had been an unpredicted worst-case scenario for it. The girl, emotionally-driven as she was, held a deep grudge against its kind for what she called deception, torture and many other things it would never have attributed to their actions. Unfortunately, she intended to even out that grudge, taking violent action against their consciousness and destroying so many of its biological terminals that it was made to account for the change in units. Rather than wait for her to exhaust and mentally stabilize, it took initiative and attempted to strike a deal, a contract, if one would. It took time and a lot of terminals were destroyed in the process of getting the message through, but once she took the time to consider it, she was quick to negotiate and eventually agreed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Earth was to remain free of Incubator terminals as well as any other being under its flag, current terminal withheld. The Incubators were to inform Homura Akemi of useful information about the world she rebuilt and would follow orders she gave. In return, Homura Akemi would not destroy any more terminals and agree on complete peace between them, rather than a mere standstill. One terminal, itself, would function as a unique line of communication between the two parties. Due to its many experiences with her, starting even with her apotheosis, it had become the sole individual of its kind, even if it adhered to the greater collective. It had almost felt relief when Akemi agreed. It knew that she had a limit to her power, actually finding and pushing that limit would require a loss of resources that would not be worth the result. This was much more beneficial to its goals.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Its primary goal, the one that had led to its tangle with humanity in the first place, was combatting entropy, delaying the heat death of the universe. A goal that it had as good as crossed off by now. Originally, it had used emotional energy released by specific humans for this goal, but with Homura Akemi’s transformation, emotional energy had been released to the point where it crystallized into physical forms, such as the planet-like flora it had encountered. Gathering the energy was easy enough to allow the creation of an energy surplus, leading it to believe the fate of the universe had been delayed for further than the foreseeable future. With such a massive obstacle out of the way, it could allow itself to focus on the smaller threats it had been forced to dismiss. Case in point, these planet-shattering growths. If they were allowed to propagate too far, it could pose a threat to the Incubators as a whole. That could not be allowed to occur.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The ship shook briefly, announcing the moment of touchdown. It took note of the unusually slow traversal time and exited the compact ship, into Akemi’s home. It was a tall building constructed from an old apartment complex, inspired by European architecture. Through handy manipulations of space and some Incubator-made technology, it was converted into an observatory with various research stations, at times much larger on the inside than its outside could hold. It lacked the usual sterile set-up of a laboratory, with pebbly floors and confusing hallways, but the materials that it was retrofitted with more than legitimized it. Walls were lined with various surveillance screens and charts, depicting the Sol system and more distant celestial objects. Physical models were scattered on various tables, presenting studies of events that had previously been out of its reach. That was another boon of its still-shaky allyship: One by one, many secrets of the universe it could only hypothesize on by itself were being revealed. Despite its claimed lack of emotional capabilities, a flame of curiosity flickered even within the Incubator. Knowledge was power and with its primary duty finally finished, amassing this power was its most favorable option. It would keep them in Akemi’s good graces and would help them find new civilizations, new worlds to inhabit and perhaps all-new power sources.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As it made its way to the room where the sample seed was kept, it passed by several of Akemi’s integral, yet untrustworthy underlings: the Clara Dolls. They resembled human children with faces as pale as its fur, appearing like paper cutouts forced into a three-dimensional space. They were disruptive presences, one specifically dedicated to being a thorn in its side, but under orders of their mistress they were at least willing to comply with it. They had set up the seed for inspection, with diagnostics on its biological makeup being run by the computers the Dolls managed. If it had been in charge, it would have preferred using Akemi’s human assets to handle the delicate equipment, but she thought them too valuable to ‘waste’ on a task such as this. It understood her point, but it wouldn’t be as concerned about the destruction of valuable equipment if someone more sapient had been managing it. At least the Dolls hadn’t sunk to that point just yet.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It stopped in front of one of the machine’s analytical devices, reading through the biological analysis and finding nothing out of the ordinary. The pod was a dark green on the outside, but had been forcibly opened to reveal crimson, spiked flaps hiding a misty core similar to the plant at the end of its growth cycle. It ran a variety of tests on the material and the seed itself, which it still needed to name, but despite the knowledge that this plant was extraordinary, it could genuinely not find anything proving that fact. There were no ways to explain the way the seed grew or what the mist inside of it was, both properties that shouldn’t be able to persist for as long as they have. The opening in the seed was large enough to let a small human through, so it could have a look for itself or, preferably, have a probe constructed. The X-ray and other piercing readings had not shown anything of note there in terms of possible living beings, but it would rather not take a risk. The only sensors that gave a return worth researching were the signal readers. They had discovered a radio and a magical signal. The latter wasn’t unexpected: It had hypothesized it to be Akemi’s indirect doing and the wavelength seemed to match that of the ‘witch’ she had wrought at the end of its previous tenure. The radio signal, however, did not make sense to it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After taking a minute to stabilize the connection, a clear sound filtered through the speakers. It was music, a sound reminiscent of that made by a human harmonica. Despite the fact that the space was proven to be empty. No law of physics permitted for the conclusion it was leaning towards; no living being could realistically survive there. It had to be a Labyrinth of sorts, if that was the case. But that raised ano-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was snapped out of its train of thought by a pat on its head and the sound of a giggling Doll. One of them apparently had made a discovery. The Incubator let the swirly-eyed being lead it to another computer, presenting data separate from the ones made by its instruments. Excellent, it seemed that Akemi had completed her investigations quickly. Hopefully her provision would prove explanatory. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As it absorbed the information and placed it along its own conclusions, it had to flag several of its ideas for reconsideration. The plant, which Akemi had dubbed ‘Dark Bramble’, was indeed opposing the laws of physics like it thought. It would need to look for entities like it, in case these brambles weren’t the only consequence of Akemi’s ascent. The solar system it had discovered the bramble in was already suspect, as it had previously dismissed that system as too small to exist for a long time. It could probably ask Akemi to investigate, if she was willing to drop her acts on Earth for a while.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After planning out several experiments and allocating resources in preparation, it moved on to the addendum Akemi had included. It presumed that it wouldn’t contain anything of great importance, but soon dropped that presumption as it read the few sentences put down.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It could vaguely hear the incessant giggling of the dolls, somehow sounding nervous, as it processed the meaning of the message properly. Soon, they had all ran off with purpose and haste, more so than it had ever seen before. It forwarded the addendum to the collective, noting several immediate queries from the more sophisticated terminals. It seemed that Akemi had come across another discovery defying its research, uprooting millennia of its set-in-stone practices if it were true. It emphasized the ‘if’ of the scenario, deeming such an oversight unlikely at best. Still, it needed to act swiftly, Akemi didn’t have a reason to lie about something as big as this. Resources were allocated for scouting terminals and probes for rapid dispatch. This Incubator, hardly necessary for that side of the action, sat on its haunches and stared into the middle distance, eyes as placid as they had ever been. There was nothing to do, but it felt a strong need to prepare. Despite that, it only wished to rest. Despite its body being incapable of tiring, it felt a strange sort of weariness. Perhaps Akemi’s excessive humanity had rubbed off on it.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Continuation. I am somewhat new to Fanfiction, so I hope to learn as I progress. I'm going to use this box for minor clarifications of choices that don't hold a lot of weight in the story, or something.</p>
<p>Homura Akemi's transformation was one based on incredible emotion. Sayaka calls her a demon, but a species that likely lacks religion, such as the Incubator, would be likelier to call the form an excessive expression of humanity.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Across Old Bark</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>One fateful day, a day that no longer is, there was an embodiment of Hope. She was the beginning and the end, giving way to despair and given way to by despair. Once, she was a soldier in the schemes of the Incubator, a pawn thrown at entropy. But through her own doing, rising through the power of her friends, she sacrificed herself for the good of those who fell and came to fall, granting them salvation at the very end. She took two knights to her side, vassals to protect her soul, and kept her corner of the world in order for what felt like forever.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Of course, those days are long over. A tainted soul, Hope’s dearest, thought the seats up in the heavens no more than curses. In an obsessive fit of despair and love, she pulled Hope down from heaven and tore her in two. She took the world for herself and rebuilt it in her ‘perfect’ image. It was an act of selfishness that strangled souls into an unknowing servitude, chained up in a gilded cage. The world functioned differently, yet every obvious shift went entirely unnoticed with only a slight margin of error. That margin of error contained a girl called Miki Sayaka. One of Hope's vassals, who had stood by her side through many hardships, was now one of the last bastions standing against this world she thought unjust. Though the world now looked better to her, she found every fibre in her body decrying its wrongness the more she thought about it. It was like every step she took was another bite out of Eden’s apples.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And so, she rebelled. Several times, even. She confronted Despair herself, rallied up allies, set traps, a different method every time. And it never worked out. Sometimes she was too impulsive, too obvious, too weak. They had started to anticipate when she regained her memories of the old world somehow, and undercut any attempts she made to get a crew together, or to make a plan. That’s why she had taken meticulous measures to stay on the down-low this time. She needed a perfect plan.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That’s why she was awake in the middle of a school night. No one had commented on it, but the demon of Despair had been conspicuously absent in her life recently, for a reason unknown to her. Despite her new status, Akemi still went to school, pretended to be amicable with her and hung around her friends. Until now, at least. But since this absence left her free to plot on her own, Sayaka wasn’t complaining. Snapping herself from a distracting train of thought, she had written down Sun Tzu quotes and turned on her radio, which was playing Dvořák’s New World Symphony as she wrote down her ideas. The radio had been a gift from her parents, a few days before they went on a vacation to space. It was a powerful piece of tech easily surpassing the archaic models from the 2000s its design was based on. She could point it at any source of radio-waves and pick them up, adjusting frequencies automatically. Case in point, the dozens of classical channels that were making a comeback, providing her with truly dramatic plotting music. The directions she plotted in were many, though for the moment she had let it rest on its focal point: Madoka Kaname, her best friend. The vessel of hope reverted to her human form. At the start, reawakening her memories was the key to Sayaka's efforts to get the world back. And that was the first few attempts: Madoka awoke, regained her powers and was subsequently blindsided by Akemi, who restarted the cycle. Then, when Madoka awoke again, her powers did not return and it became useless. But keeping Madoka on her side would still be necessary. So she could in turn blindside Akemi and take her power back… somehow. She hadn’t figured out the processes yet. Magical physics wasn't exactly an easy topic.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The blue-haired girl tapped her pen on her desk, looking over her notebook, which was thick with lines and half-finished sentences reminiscent of a flowchart or a conspiracy board. Her plans had grown elaborate and intelligent, far less rash than she once was. It all frustrated her, however. She wasn’t facing a static entity, but rather one that was actively planning against her. If she didn’t figure out what Akemi could do against her first, she wouldn’t be able to fight. Her plans needed to be dark and impenetrable as the night so that when she struck, she would do so like a thunderbolt. Maybe she’d shank Akemi. Who knew. It wasn’t particularly heroic or ceremonious, but she had sobered up her fantasies just a bit. She knew this could be her own actual Hero’s Journey, but she couldn’t be the stereotypical wide-eyed hero travelling through a new land. She needed to be direct, strong and inspiring.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The wonderful symphony ended and Sayaka noticed that she had become distracted. She was getting tired, it was quite late after all. With a short vocal command she told the radio to shift to a calmer channel. It quickly obliged, its algorithm cycling through channels she knew until it settled on one she hadn’t heard before. A soft harmonica, sounding like the back-up to an instrument that wasn’t there. It was definitely calm, sleep-inducing almost, but she couldn’t help but wonder who put this unknown station up. A few button presses later and she had the approximate broadcasting location. The closest one at least, it was being buggy about it, claiming the broadcast came from two places. But considering the one she saw, that was no surprise.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After all, when something comes from Homura Akemi’s house, it was bound to be weird bullshit. Anything new and the devil just had to be involved, even if it was just a freaking harmonica. She wouldn’t be surprised if the girl was paranoid enough to make music a notch in her plans. With some effort, Sayaka reached into her soul and extended her magical senses. She had become rather rusty with her abilities, but the fact that Akemi hadn’t locked them away meant that she could at least use them. After a bit of sensing, comparable to listening in on a conversation, she felt no sign of Akemi. There were vague traces, but she definitely wasn’t there in person.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Time to take a look then.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Maybe it was a sense of lachesism that pushed Sayaka to go through with the impulse, sneaking out through her window to avoid her parents. She no longer trusted anyone but herself to keep the knowledge of this world, the only one besides Akemi who truly understood how broken this world was. It weighed on her, loathe as she was to admit it to even herself. All of her friends had returned to taking this world, to taking their </span>
  <em>
    <span>lives</span>
  </em>
  <span> for granted, like they had never spent months with their life on the line every single moment. Like they had never been soldiers fighting for a lie. Like they were pretending that these feelings, these instincts that the violent life forged in them, didn’t linger and leave them paranoid. It left her feeling lonely, when the only one who understood what she went through was the devil. That was why jumping straight into the lion’s den, no matter how dangerous, left her with a feeling of clarity. It felt more real than anything else in this hope-forsaken world.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The ever-present halfmoon stared down at her as she hopped from roof to roof. It was cold and foggy out, draping a dense blanket over the city that couldn’t help but cling to you. The section of the city Akemi had made her home in was very different from the rest, looking archaic like an old German city street. It was a far cry from the pristine, aseptic apartment she and her parents lived in and even further from the technological marvel of Madoka’s house. It was nostalgic, but in a weird way. A bad way, now. At least the one that tainted the feelings still wasn’t around; the only people she saw through the fog were the rare drunk or homeless person and even those knew to traverse mist lightly. Misty nights in Mitakihara were beautiful, but discomforting in a way others weren’t. It was one of the reasons she took a higher altitude: The fog didn’t reach higher than the roofs. It allowed her to take one of the unusual roads to Rome.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>With a bit more effort than she remembered, she jumped onto a ledge of Akemi’s home. It had become much taller in the time between worlds. It was an eyesore to Sayaka, but at least it was climbable as well, with many window sills and a loose brick here and there leaving breaks between Sayaka’s magic-boosted leaps. The energy within here flowed like water, weighing her down as she crouched and then pushing her further as her legs extended. After getting used to the sensation, she made it to the top quite easily. There, a large telescope protruded from the dome-shaped roof, like a professional astral observatory had simply been thrown on top of the building. It was a magnificent tool, one that intrigued her classmates, but tonight it was just a point of entry, with the small gap between roof and telescope being just big enough for her to slip inside.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>With a grunt and a huff, she dropped down onto the barely-lit floor, empty as a starless night. Seemed like the Dolls were busy elsewhere. They weren’t as great in number here, but she sensed them a few floors down. She took her Soul Gem, the conduit of her magic and the vessel for her soul, and let its magic cast a light on the room she had jumped into. It looked like it contained mostly computers. They seemed too complex for her to figure out in a timely manner, so she decided to look for something easier, something she’d find more out of. A quick search later and she found the trap door to the downstairs. She quietly slipped it open and looked down, squinting as the bright light from the more active room broke into her eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The room was perfectly circular, with its walls covered in computer screens and text she wouldn’t have the time to read. A few Clara Dolls were stationed here, but that hadn’t surprised her. The surprise would be the Incubator’s presence. The little bastard was lying asleep on a column, resting far more soundly than she thought it could or deserved, especially in Akemi’s space. They must have come to terms somehow. She didn’t know why and how they made up, but it certainly worried her. Akemi wouldn’t be so quick to forgive it, especially after all the bullcrap it put her through. This felt wrong. Dangerous, even. Perhaps this explained how she got ratted out so early. That would make this idea even worse.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But then again, she hadn’t come here to avoid danger. She wasn’t being dangerous enough, still. She took out her phone and opened the radio app, trying to pinpoint the harmonica’s signal once more. From what she could tell, it was right here in this room. She opened the door further and pointed her phone around until she got the exact location: Some weird plant-looking thing. The phone was being weird about the exact distance, citing something closer to a kilometer, but it was right there. She felt some traces of magic, but they didn’t seem to come from the plant itself. Probably some analysing machine she didn’t care about.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The bluenette jumped at the sound of a loud beep, ready to flee in the case of an alarm, but quickly recovered as it noticed the giggling Dolls. It seemed that they had tried to play a prank on the Incubator. The beep had roused it and as soon as it checked on the computer the sound came from, it turned around to see the Dolls booking it at top speed, satisfied with their little prank. Sayaka deemed herself lucky and considered simply snagging the incubator until its creepy red pupils turned towards her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“You can come down, Sayaka Miki. I doubt waiting longer will prove fruitful.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sayaka started at the sudden addressal but quickly jumped down, landing close to the Incubator to put it in striking distance. This felt like a setup in every way, but if she was spotted there was no use in waiting.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Alright rat, what do you want? Don’t think Akemi’s gonna be happy about you letting me snoop around.” She immediately spoke, trying to subtly prod at the Incubator’s allegiances.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The Incubator shook its head, holding its eyes closed. </span>
  <em>
    <span>“She will likely not. However, I have been ordered not to interfere in any earthly matters unless ordered otherwise, so there is hardly anything I can do to stop you.” </span>
  </em>
  <span>Sayaka could almost swear she heard some sort of sarcasm in its tone, but it continued before she could parse its words. </span>
  <em>
    <span>“However, Akemi’s recent vanishing will leave us both free from repercussions for the time being.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sayaka blinked slowly, surprised that both of her suspicions had been confirmed. That was weird. She turned around to face the plant, but kept her ears focused on the Incubator. “Really? I wouldn’t expect anyone to escape your </span>
  <em>
    <span>excellent</span>
  </em>
  <span> surveillance team. Did she get rid of it since last time?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Not seeing a reason to avoid answering, the Incubator replied: </span>
  <em>
    <span>“Hardly. We do have an approximate location, but it is obfuscated by the nature of the space she resides in. We expect her to return with more data soon.” </span>
  </em>
  <span>It hopped off of its perch and moseyed on past Sayaka, towards the bramble. She immediately noted the purple mark on the Incubator’s back. </span>
  <em>
    <span>“This object was removed from the location in question. I must ask that you keep your distance from it - it is an anomaly that seems to warp space. Should you act impulsively, you will likely end up in the vicinity of Akemi. The atmosphere is extremely thin as well, so-”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, yeah, I got it.” Sayaka interrupted, pretending to dismiss the warning entirely. That did sound like a problem, but it also felt like a solution. Call it pessimistic, but at this point she was starting to run out of ideas and if there was any chance of getting a hint towards her next step, it would be by making the biggest, riskiest and possibly dumbest move. But there could be results. There could be something within this ‘anomaly’ to help her. There had to be something worthwhile for Akemi to go in there, something she might let slip to give her a stepping stone for next time. And if she failed, she wouldn’t get killed. Akemi at least saw value in her continued existence. Sayaka doubted that any of the familiars in this building thought the same. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m gonna go and get some stuff, mind holding the door open for me when I get back?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She didn’t wait for an answer before climbing up the stairs and leaving, homebound.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>She soon returned the same way she came and left, carrying in a bag a length of rope and the blue space suit she got for her family’s vacation to the moon. If the Incubator hadn’t lied about the seed’s weirdness she wouldn’t rely on her limited magical powers to keep her warm and breathing, regardless of how much she needed either of the two, just to be safe. To her surprise, the Incubator had actually kept the room open and empty for her, tilting its head in question as she entered.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“This thing’s got enough oxygen and insulation to keep me going for a while, so I’m gonna take a look around.” She spoke while putting on the suit, with ease similar to a surfer putting on a wetsuit. “Hole’s big enough to let me through, might as well try it, right?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The Incubator left that question unanswered, instead looking on in something Sayaka equated with confusion as Sayaka tied the rope around her waist and the leg of a computer table, hoping the stacked weight would suffice. Then, the girl took a breath and carefully climbed into the seed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sayaka’s vision was immediately obscured by the thick mist, the first thing she noticed coming out of the other end. It was so thick that all she could really see was a scattering of massive vines throughout the space, not too far away from her, as well as bright lights in the distance. An eerie silence loomed over it all, deafening to the point where she could very clearly hear her heart’s beat speeding up.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The second thing she noticed was the feeling of her rope snapping.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. In The Ancient Glade</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The harmonica is a simple but elegant instrument, turning breath into brass with a level of ease that left the trumpet jealous. It wasn’t an instrument typically expected in bands or orchestras, more something typical of a lone ranger, sitting in the dark corner of a bar and radiating mystery. And though they did play in a band, Feldspar would be hard-pressed not to call themself a lone ranger as they sat at their campfire, surrounded by the mist-filled nothingness of Dark Bramble.</p><p>On Timber Hearth, Feldspar’s home planet and the only properly populated planet of their solar system, they had amassed the reputation of a daredevil, a great pilot. They were the first Hearthian to be intentionally launched into space, making a single orbit around the planet before crashing back down. Every new piece of equipment and every spacecraft was tested by Feldspar, much to the surprise and worry of those around them. They appeared absolutely fearless, to the point people were surprised they survived to see space. Feldspar didn’t mind the praise - it was kinda weird, but it was fun to be the pioneer of Outer Wilds Ventures. Their sense of astrophe was quenched by these trips, and it was immensely entertaining to soar through the void while terrifying the people at ground control.</p><p>From the moment they made something good enough for flight around the solar system, Feldspar was ready to go. There were five other planets within reach. They had successfully explored four of them. It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t supposed to be. Every place besides their lucky home planet was absolutely filled with danger, from rising sand to rock falls to never ending storms. It was amazing, of course. They couldn’t believe their own four eyes the first time they landed on Brittle Hollow, and the wonder of exploration never left them. Even after crashing the ship a ton. Ground control was likelier to kill them than anything in space at this point.</p><p>At least, that was their current guess. They’d crossed off four out of five planets, leaving Dark Bramble for last. A sort of taboo amongst the hearthians, the parasitic plant shattering a planet into many pieces. It was nothing but exciting for Timber Hearth’s star astronaut and in retrospect, a very poor choice. They had a vague idea of Dark Bramble’s insides: There were probably gonna be some vines, and a few anglerfish. On an earlier fly-by of his he accidentally caught one of them, about the size of his head. They had no clue where it had come from, but no problem! They couldn’t have known that it was just a baby and that the actual ones dwarfed his ship. Absolutely not.</p><p>So when they flew into the opening in the seed and found it much bigger on the inside, view obfuscated save for some vines and light, the obvious choice for them was to approach the light. The vines were easy enough to dodge, the thing attached to that light… not so much. Despite being almost round and the largest thing they’d ever seen, it was actually faster than their ship, grazing its backside with its humongous razor-sharp teeth. The hearthian pulled off some stunts worthy of the title of ‘greatest pilot’, but they eventually got clipped by the fish and spun off into the depths, crashing far away from the fish and into one of those vines. Mark that as more dangerous than ground control.</p><p>With a ship broken beyond repair, Feldspar decided to camp out for a while. They could probably get out and radio the others if they ever came to run low on supplies, but for now, they felt alright staying here. They’d found a place to plop down emergency tree seeds and a gravity crystal, and were free to play harmonica and chill out for a while. Being a pioneer got tiring after a while, and they weren't sure what was next for them after this place. Sure, they probably hadn’t seen everything in Dark Bramble, but with the way space worked here, they couldn’t expect a whole lot.</p><p>And so, they played on, warbling through his instrument in front of a cozy campfire. Reception was terrible here, so they likely couldn’t listen to the others, but they were certain the others could listen to them. Heh, that would probably worry the daylights out of them. Feldspar could never quite tell for how long they played; the atmospheric tune they usually used to back the others was very… absorbing, in a sense. It was repetitive, but never tiring. More entrancing, even. In this quiet part, where no fish roamed, it was the only audible sound for a long time, backed by the crackling of fire. It was eerie, but calm as well. Not something the Hearthians would have expected of the daredevil the first time they pulled the instrument out, but something that made sense to them still. The melody rose, then lilted, before resting in a low spot and stopping when Feldspar finally lost their breath. They sighed and took off their helmet, revealing their blue face and long ears to the nothingness, and pulled up a marshmallow stick. They could get used to this.</p><p>“That was quite the beautiful piece.” A voice spoke from above them, in a language they didn’t know yet somehow understood. The first voice besides his own in quite a while. “You’ve picked quite an interesting place to camp. Mind if I join you for a while?”</p><p>Their head swivelled around to pinpoint the source of the voice and they quickly found someone they had never seen before, of a species they’d definitely not heard of before. Just like them, they were standing on two feet, and the general limb count was the same, though they had more fingers, five on one hand and four on the other. Strangely, they only had two eyes, violet in color. Their skin was more of a pale white, surprisingly not covered by a space suit but by some sort of feathery dress, with wings to boot. It certainly didn’t seem suited for the unforgiving environment of space, but perhaps they had some sort of biological adaptation Feldspar didn’t know of. The black, long fur on their head certainly didn’t help a lot.</p><p>“Sure, come on down. Pull up a marshmallow stick. Can’t find a cozier place in the whole Bramble.” They replied, hoping the being would understand them like they had just now. Maybe they were being a bit too chill, but if this being was dangerous, they would’ve probably noticed by now. Not like they could do anything if they were - didn’t exactly have any self-defense tricks up the sleeve. Better to sit around and be an ambassador while they could. Sounded pretty fun.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>It is said within some religious works that when the devil appears in human guise, he is often missing something, such as an eye or an ear.<br/>Anyway, that's one traveler introduced. Feldspar is cool, big fan.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. It's Always Dark</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Homura Akemi had reached out into the ever-expanding cosmos, the blanket of stars smothering her in every direction, and found that none of the lights she saw were there. Not a single celestial body. Just cold death and molten rock, remnants of energy spread out. Normally, the death of stars was just chatter for her to tune out - the distant universe had little to do with her solar system, with the one she wished to protect, with Madoka Kaname. Now that she had taken notice of the sheer scale of this death, she was willing to be a little more concerned. This wasn’t supposed to happen. The Incubator had promised that they had gathered enough energy to last beyond a calculable time period. She honestly doubted the little rats would lie to her again, so either something had gone wrong in that process, or their understanding of the situation was wholly incorrect. What little data she currently had was forwarded to her personal unit for processing, but as soon as Homura completed her current search, she was going to get to the bottom of this.</p>
<p>The girl calmly swerved through the Bramble’s mist, drinking in the silence much like one would a beautiful lake or monument, more like a quiet than an actual silence. Ever since her ascension, her aesthetic taste had shifted towards this sort of thing, to the point where her nerves were barely even touched and she melted into the environment almost naturally. She couldn’t see far, but she could make it far enough on mental senses alone, instinctually dodging the living beings and focusing only on the oddities: Similarly-shaped seeds to the one she first entered, revealing another large space inside them. She couldn’t help but be reminded of the labyrinths she fought through in her early days, similarly-expanding pocket spaces with a myriad of deadly creatures. Those were much more cluttered than this space, filled with bright colors and traps and things she just didn’t feel for anymore. In contrast, this bramble was a nice change of pace.  She had leisurely been chasing after the sound of music, collecting her thoughts in the meantime. Mostly, she was trying to figure out how such a shift in the universe had passed by her. She hadn’t actively checked on these stars before, but a shift as strong as that had to be noticeable. To her, the Incubators, whoever. Was it engineered? Could something like this possibly be natural?</p>
<p>Was her Sun next?</p>
<p>Evidence pointed to a ‘no’, scientists had claimed it would take billions of years before that happened, and the star hadn’t even entered the dangerous stages associated with star death. But the idea still audaciously lingered. It could be another threat to the world she fought so hard to seize. A threat she didn’t know how to stop, if she even could.</p>
<p>She shook her head wildly, as if physical force could throw the thought out. She was glad to not be like the Incubators, but some of these emotions proved a hindrance. Such errant thoughts were entirely unfounded, after all. Her sun was safe, and that’s all that mattered. Madoka would be safe and so would the others.</p>
<p>She held a hand up to her ear, feeling the glow of the gem attached to her ear cuff. It was a shard of a phylactery of sorts, containing a piece of her soul and the power she needed to contain this universe, but it also made for an excellent signal tracker. Mostly for magical signatures, letting her sense the other shards of her split phylactery, but with enough practice she had picked up energy, radio signals and even non-magical souls fairly easily. It had certainly helped improve her security, even if it had now led to insecurity.</p>
<p>She entered another one of the brambles, feeling a brief chill creep up on her as space shifted around her. She was close enough that she could hear the sound by ear if she really tried. It really was just an alien lifeform playing music in the worst possible place. She would’ve probably called it over and done by now, but she had entered here purely out of curiosity, so satiating that a bit more wouldn’t hurt. Besides, she didn’t quite want to return to her responsibilities yet. It was nice, being in a place like this every now and then. Perhaps she could replicate it at home somehow. She had intended to set some people loose on the seed after it was figured out, but she could find some use for it. Whoever was hanging out here probably had the same idea.</p>
<p>She traced the signal closer to its origin, to another angler-fish like light. This one, however, didn’t come from a living anglerfish: It was the skeleton of one, larger than even the ones she had glimpsed on her way here. One of the seeds was stuck inside of it, growing through its skull. More impressive, however, was a camp set up right in its jaw. There were trees, a campfire and some sort of purple crystal - which she could, of course, appreciate. Most interesting though, was the one causing the signal. She had been hovering behind them to listen to the harmonica, but the creature was just as interesting. Bipedal and fairly humanlike in biology, with blue skin, pointy ears and four eyes.Only seemed to have three fingers a hand, webbed like a duck’s. Probably meant they were aquatic on some level. A cracked helmet laid besides them and their spacesuit seemed somewhat primitive in design, patched together. They mustn't have achieved spaceflight very long ago and yet they made it all the way here. It was almost endearing.</p>
<p>“That was quite the beautiful piece.” She spoke as the music died down, feeling her voice echo and shift to fit into the being’s understanding. They suppressed a shiver, but seemed fairly casual about her sudden presence. “You’ve picked quite an interesting place to camp. Mind if I join you for a while?”</p>
<p>The creature paused for a second but agreed quickly, telling her to pick up a marshmallow stick and make herself comfortable, an offer she was quick to take them up on. It was rare to be in a situation like this, and it was surprisingly cozy for the area. Not the sort of place she’d take her ‘friends’ to, but cozy nonetheless. She missed that sensation.</p>
<p>After spearing a marshmallow on her stick and roasting it to perfection, she chose to remain quiet, gauging the humanoid’s reaction to her. They looked as relaxed as they sounded, roasting a marshmallow of her own and limiting themself to just a curious glance her way. Right, she’d probably do well to introduce herself first. Even now, such things didn’t come easily to her, a stark reminder of the human she used to be long ago. She shoved the embarrassment that thought gave her into a little box and opened her mouth.</p>
<p>“I believe some introductions are in order; I’ve never met anyone of your kind and I doubt you’ve seen someone like me before.” The being nodded in assent, letting Homura say her piece. “My name is Homura Akemi. I am a… human. It is pleasant meeting you.”</p>
<p>“Heh, same here. Name’s Feldspar, I’m what we call a Hearthian. Born on Timber Hearth, not too far from here.” They introduced themself with a mock salute. “First astronaut of my people, first to make it this far and now, the first to make contact with a new species. Didn’t think I’d get that much luck after all the ships I crashed.” They dug into their batch of marshmallows,chewing slowly. “But I got here because of a crash… guess that’s a brand of luck, huh?” The Hearthian let out a chuckle.</p>
<p>Homura gave a wan smile, not quite feeling the humour of irony and still feeling far too on edge to go along. They had enough supplies, it seemed, but being stuck here didn’t seem right for any sane mortal and she hadn’t had enough time with the Hearthian to diagnose insanity in any capacity. As if she had any right to do so.<br/>“I suppose…” She replied eventually. “Being stuck in a place like this hardly seems like luck of any kind. How long have you been here?”</p>
<p>“No clue. Only clock’s in my ship, that poor thing’s still sparking over there.” They pointed into the mist, where a softer light flickered. “Probably a long time now. Not like I’m stuck here though, getting out’s pretty easy. Just taking a break now. It’s good for the soul, give it a try sometime. Think you kinda need it.”</p>
<p>Homura’s mind paused at the accusation, or what felt like one. She thought she had hid her state of mind well enough, especially from someone who probably was used to slightly different body language than hers. Just another failure in the books, she supposed. Besides, Feldspar hadn’t been wrong: She could really use a break at this point. She was loathe to admit it, but her position as ruler was strenuous and she had trouble rebuilding the relationships with the people she used to be around, causing her to still look like an outsider to the ones she wanted to stay closest to. Her familiars mocked her every step and she never really felt safe, as if every facet of her abilities was unstable somehow. On some level, she really did want to pause, even if just for a bit. The question was if she had time. Her sun didn’t seem to be far into its life cycle yet, maintaining its orange color, and she was fairly certain her liaison would inform her if something changed: Her senses seemed limited within this area, which left her somewhat paranoid, but she could figure her way around that. Besides, having a quiet place to plan wouldn’t hurt, especially not with a curious new species around.</p>
<p>She’d get to everything else later. Best to detach herself from every other responsibility before tackling the big one. She took out another handful of marshmallows and leaned back, closing her eyes ever so slightly. “I suppose I can make some time for that, if you don’t mind me intruding here a while longer.”</p>
<p>Feldspar smirked in response, picking up their harmonica once more. “Heh, ‘course not. Welcome to camp Feldspar, kid. Enjoy your stay.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>That's the last of the pre-written chapters. Updates probably won't be in batches, my pace isn't consistent enough for that way of handling things. I've got some things planned out, but a lot of things will be winged. Have a good one.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Stormy Weather</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Incubator’s head tilted in confusion as the rope Miki Sayaka had attached herself to immediately strained and suddenly snapped, missing its head by a hair as it was flung back. It thought the spatial anomaly had been explained sufficiently, but apparently it hadn’t laid out exactly how it functioned.</p><p> </p><p>But there was nothing it could do now. It turned around and sauntered back to the monitors, instead taking this moment to see if its sensors had something to say about the shift. This was out of its ears, now.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>The snap of the rope reverberated loudly through the mist-drenched space, echoing in Sayaka’s ears to the point she almost couldn’t hear herself. That rat bastard, of course it would pull some shit like this! She pushed herself forward, quickly trying to mitigate the momentum that was pushed onto her, and slowed her breathing. No use in panic or rage, she had to keep calm as best she could. She only felt a vague trace of Akemi, far away, but if that went the other way, she’d do better to remain calm. The sound had all but faded, clinging on softly until its presence was as turbid as the mist around her, and her heart was the only sound she could hear, slowing down as she controlled her breath. She was safe for now, she was sure. Testing that theory was not something the bluenette cared for though, so she looked around for a point of reference, something she could see clearly. She was clearly still inside something, with the walls in the greens and browns of the vines she saw at the observatory. They bent around a hole, something she deemed to be an exit. The mist seemed to thicken around this hole, obscuring the outside even as she tentatively neared it. It was the most straightforward path she could take, and much closer than everything else, especially with how massive the area felt. Trying to take this exit was the best option in her head, especially with limited oxygen at her disposal. She twisted herself around and pressed a button to release pressure, throwing a small amount of air out to get herself moving, before turning on her suit’s fuel-based propellant, a fairly weak jetpack. Sayaka squinted as she entered the mist, trying to see if she would end up back at the observatory or somewhere else entirely. She instinctively held her breath, like she was at the edge of a ravine, until she finally saw it: space, thousands of miles of space, nowhere close to where she was hoping to be. She briefly turned around as her momentum carried her away and saw the Bramble, the massive plant dwarfing her in size. That little seed Kyubey had warned her of was some sort of teleporter to a different freaking planet. A planet she hoped had oxygen, shattered as it was. That part creeped her out the most; it didn’t feel like this planet could exist in its current state, broken as it was. Still, they were fairly close by -the planet was a lot smaller than earth- so she booked it to the shards of its surface, a dark-blue ice. Her suit hadn’t detected any oxygen, so she had to take a quick SitRep while she could. It confirmed her initial guess: She had to be very far from home.</p><p> </p><p>Sayaka had found herself in another solar system entirely. A very small one, on top of that. The sun shone brightly in the middle, with her helmet luckily shutting out the painful light and letting her see the planets circling. It was still difficult to see with the distance, but she spotted twin planets, close to the sun, a planet that looked rather green, a more rocky planet and, closeby, a massive, green gas giant, with red thunder flaring up like shouts into an endless night. Now that she looked at it, it was <em> really </em> close. So close, she was pretty sure she could make it there without a ship. However, it wasn’t likely that she was going to survive there, she couldn’t tell what was under the blanket and even if she could, no magic could help her survive that fall. But… something was circling around the planet. A massive structure, shaped like a cannon and colored almost like rust. A sort of blue field surrounded its end, pointing towards a hole, an entrance. A safe place. A bet. That had to be a space ship of some kind. And if it was a ship, that meant there had to be some sort of oxygen source. Sayaka was no biologist, but she was pretty sure all animals needed oxygen in some variety to survive.</p><p> </p><p>She waited just a bit longer, trying to predict her trajectory as best she could before bending her knees as deep as she could, feeling the aqueous energy of her magic gathering under her feet, like a spring being pushed together until its strain became impossible to hold. Once the space ship was close to overhead, she released the stored energy and activated her suit’s boosters, freeing herself from the shattered planet’s gravity and leading her straight towards the gas giant. The control over her momentum felt very loose, leaving her anxious about controlling her speed, especially as the looming giant got closer and closer. When the sensation of gravity pulling on her much stronger than before came, she immediately slowed down, using her boosters over her magic. Her eyes had constantly been on the nearing ship more so than the planet, which from here felt more encompassing than the sky. It became apparent to her that she had poured way too much energy into her jump. With her boosters unable to halt her quite enough, she was probably going to crash into the side of the ship. Welp, at least it was close enough.</p><p> </p><p>She shouted a rare expletive as she braced herself, crossing her arms in front of her helmet as she slammed into the ship, her bones rattling from the impact. Sayaka felt lucky, knowing that she possessed the unnatural hardiness granted by her magic, but it still hurt like hell. At least she was on the ship now, and there was enough oxygen left in her suit to last a few minutes. Not enough time to rest and recover from the audacity of that jump, but whatever, she should’ve been prepared.</p><p> </p><p>Clutching on to whatever grip she could find for dear life, Sayaka began making it to the back end of the ship, where she saw the strange blue column. A sense of dread kept her grounded to the strange metal as she maneuvered, knowing she could mitigate most mistakes but feeling like she could fall at any moment regardless. When she did finally climb onto the pad-like back-end, she found what she’d hoped for: an entrance. The blue light, of spiraling squares, was like a gravity field of sorts, holding her in place. It was larger than her, maybe more like a landing pad? That seemed to make sense to her. Get out of the ship and immediately drop into the ship’s entrance. She peeked into the hole, finding a shallow drop she quickly made, into an orb-like room. An airlock of sorts, she guessed. She looked around for an opening or switch, until her eyes settled on a glassy ball. The ball lit up as soon as she steadied her gaze. The bluenette quickly took the hint and tested it, moving her gaze and seeing the ball follow the track, until it reached the middle of the orb, where it clicked in place and the room around her shifted, opening into the spaceship. No oxygen detected yet.</p><p>The inside of the ship opened to a cylindrical room with three more doors and a window, revealing the almost cannon-like length of the ship. Maybe this was some sort of weapon? If she found anyone, perhaps she could find a way to ask. But even that seemed a great unknown; Sayaka hadn’t been able to see through the window from the outside, and no one had come to her when she entered. If there <em> was </em> someone there, she’d hoped to have met them by now. Hopefully that didn’t mean she was in danger. Defending herself in a place like this wasn’t something she had the space of mind for.</p><p> </p><p>She glanced at the other doors, finding them entirely identical save for markings around them: Lines with different numbers of hexagonal attachments, together with some sort of complicated spiral thing she didn’t understand. Thousands of tiny little shapes arranged into a form that would probably mean much more to someone else, with her only taking the idea of the ‘1, 2 and 3’ of the larger symbols. It wasn’t super clear to her anyway, but she decided to enter the one marked with but one hexagon, once again moving the airlock with just her eyes -which she still found weird for such a simple object- and floated into a room that felt almost somewhere near hospitable. </p><p>Both the floor and the ceiling seemed to be outfitted with strange devices, long tubes with many segmented openings, containing an orb like the ones used in the airlock. In the middle of the room, on the floor, was a deep pool containing a brass-like material. The ceiling, in contrast, had a shallow square indent with two small pillars on them. At least, she thought it was the ceiling. Space hardly had a concept of ‘up’ and ‘down’ and she could feel a weak pull from both of them, like the artificial gravity of the pad. It was all very impressive, somewhat beyond humanity in scale, but nothing was quite as good as that sweet, sweet hiss of her oxygen tank automatically refilling. Now she had the time to think. She leaned downwards, letting gravity grasp onto her and touching down. She felt a soft hum with the device, one she tuned out fairly quickly as she wandered, activating the few devices and letting them run, observing the strange models that rose out of the pool, of space ships and planets she had only vaguely seen before. There were disks with texts she couldn’t translate, presenting readings of some sorts if she had to guess. Despite this recurring lack of understanding, she found herself absorbed in the room’s mystery, dashing around the tubes and trying to figure out how it connected to the pool, jumping at the models and somehow flying right through them, as if they were still made of liquid. When she hopped to the ceiling and felt her center of gravity shift, she was met with what seemed like a simpler set-up. There were a few smooth stones scattered on the ground, each inscribed with a glowing symbol like the ones she’d seen before at the doors, as well as one of the twin planets. Their shapes were very deliberate, resembling the openings in the pillars she’d spotted earlier. That had to mean something.</p><p> </p><p>She approached the middle of the room, walking down (or up?) the steps into the square indent. In the middle were two of the small pillars, one with the symbol of the room, one open. It was a receptacle for this stone, as she’d guessed. With a reckless lack of hesitation, she took the stone and inserted it into the slot. The stones turnt and connected to each other, causing the same brass liquid to pour around her like it had above her. She didn’t quite get what it meant until the liquid crept up onto her.</p><p> </p><p>Before Sayaka could react, her suit had become encased in the matter, completely obscuring her vision, until it suddenly cleared up and revealed something dizzying to her: She stood in a dark area, but was surrounded by what looked like stars moving at impossible speeds, circling her. She heard a loud rumbling all around her and saw strange faces, masks, even through the darkness. The sudden shift left her surprised, stunned until she felt a hand on her shoulder. Then she went from surprised to terrified, whirling around to see absolutely no one, and instinctually jumping back, manifesting a saber in her hand. Still no one. Until the liquid suddenly ebbed off of her suit, leaving her back in the space ship, sword pulled at a tall stranger holding the marked stone.They were waving their hands back and forth, trying to signal they weren’t here to cause trouble. Sayaka lowered her blade, and nodded suspiciously.</p><p> </p><p>The stranger wasn’t human, if only by the three fingers on their hands. They wore a brown suit that was a bit on the loose side in parts, but was well-made overall, if less modern than the model she wore. Their helmet was also archaic, round, small and with two large antennas strapped to the top. She could vaguely see four eyes through the helmet, looking surprisingly relaxed for someone with a sword pointed at them.</p><p> </p><p>“Who are you?” Sayaka tried, hearing her tinny voice reverberate through the room. There was no way this being spoke the same language as her, but she might as well try, if only to establish contact. Her tone was somewhat wary, but she doubted they could fault her for that.</p><p> </p><p>The being responded, speaking in a way that reminded her of English, if only in how it sounded before she learnt it. Similar syllables and accents, but none of the words made sense. At least they sounded calm, even through the language barrier. That was something.</p><p> </p><p>She let her saber dissipate into blue mist, noting the surprise of the being as normal, and thought. This alien likely wasn’t the one who built this ship, she guessed. Their suit looked less advanced than her’s, and this ship was likely more advanced than hers, so this was made by someone else. That meant this alien came here on a ship of their own, so they could lead her to a safe place! Now, how to ask that…</p><p> </p><p>The alien seemed to have their own idea, putting the rock down and stepping just a bit closer to Sayaka. They tapped their finger on their head, before saying a single word: “Gabbro.”</p><p> </p><p>‘Gabbro’... that had to be their name, then. That’s a simple start, great idea! She repeated the motion and said her own name in the same manner, to which ‘Gabbro’ nodded. Then, they pointed up at the model of the ship and to her. Asking why she’d come here, or how? She looked out the window, hoping the plant planet was still around, but then shrugged and shook her head. She decided to mirror it, pointing to Gabbro and then to the model. Gabbro, however, pointed to the gas giant. They seemed to find some mirth in the confused tilt of her head, as she heard a low chuckle. Finally, they pointed to her, then to the gas giant. Making a guess to their intentions, Sayaka nodded. Interesting as this place was, she’d rather have a place to stay, maybe some food.</p><p> </p><p>Gabbro motioned for her to follow, floating back through the door and towards the ship’s exit, making it out towards the landing pad where they stretched and stayed, keeping their eyes on the planet. In lieu of any ship’s presence, Sayaka did the same. Perhaps they had called ground control or something? She gave them a questioning look, which they waved off with a finger pointed to the cloudy surface of the giant. A finger on their other hand was tapping a rhythm, as if measuring a timing. They kept at it for what felt like minutes, accompanied only by the sound of their breaths, until he stopped and nodded, pointing at a parting of the clouds.</p><p> </p><p>Out of the atmosphere flew not a ship, but an island. An entire island, something that shouldn’t be capable of flying, with what looked like trees on it. Sayaka barely had the time to process the sheer impossibility of what she saw before Gabbro jumped towards it, causing her to follow almost instinctively, charging herself with just a little bit of magic as she jumped after them, reorienting herself as she approached the ground. She felt the increasing pull of gravity already, but was still fighting not to bounce back, letting her thrusters work extra hours until she saw the ship getting further away. The island was descending.</p><p> </p><p>She spent less than a moment in the dense green clouds before she found herself in a planet much more habitable than she expected, littered with islands and covered in a beautiful sea… as well as dozens of tornadoes. That must’ve been how the island made it into space, then.</p><p> </p><p>Her musings were quickly derailed as the island landed in water and she fell over, feeling her bones creak under the sudden new pressure, as well as the sudden increase in weight around her. Was it just the fall, or did she suddenly feel heavier here?</p><p> </p><p>She tested the idea once the ground under her felt stable enough, rising to her feet slowly. Her steps felt much heavier, and an unaided jump raised her much less high than she was used to. Yep, seemed like gravity here was weird. At least she wasn’t the only one stuck with it, having a more experienced astronaut with her would help. Gabbro was standing close to her, leaning against a tree with as much of a relaxed aura as every other moment she’d seen them. If this one wasn’t experienced, they had to be either insane or sedated.</p><p> </p><p>For the first time in a while, Sayaka’s heart cautiously hoped as she got used to the gravity, following Gabbro to their camp. Maybe it wasn’t a clear path back to normal, but she was taking baby steps. And even baby steps could get one far.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>It took me a bit to succeed, but the jump between planets Sayaka makes is actually fully possible in Outer Wilds, just takes a while for the planets to align. The boon of a small solar system...<br/>Gabbro implies it's possible to survive a fall from space to Giant's Deep by landing in the water, but I interpreted that more as explanation of a game mechanic where water denies fall damage, rather than something the Hearthians can just do. Semi-aquatic or no, it would be ridiculous. Whether or not Sayaka can take it might be a different story, but not one I'm telling.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Comes Around</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Minor note: The Hearthians don't have a concept of gender and don't know humans have one, so they likely wouldn't apply a Nomaian idea on them automatically, hence the usage of gender neutral pronouns on Sayaka in this chapter.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>An endless rain pitter-pattered onto the island, soft enough to be tuned out with time, especially under the constant noise of tornadoes. Giant’s Deep was a planet full of wonder, but much like every other one of its compatriots in the solar system, it was equally full of danger. Its strong gravity made flying more difficult, islands were thrown into the sky and dropped with just as much nonchalance, and the sea… swimming through it is borderline impossible, as it is littered with massive waves and tornadoes lifting its islands straight out of the water. The whole thing was kept in constant motion by a strong current below, making sure nothing could ever go too deep. It was a chaotic mess, one you could easily lose your ship in if you weren’t careful.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Which was exactly what Gabbro did.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gabbro wasn't really bothered by that fact though, they hardly even thought about it. At some point they'd find the ship and then everything would be fine. The Hearthian had enough experience to explore without it, using the tornadoes as strategically as they could, and the island they'd perched themself on was a good place to stay. Even when it was hurled clean out of the water it felt perfectly calm. The little cave was nice and the trees were tastefully placed, letting them set up camp and more easily play their wind-sounding flute. They hoped their guest appreciated it too.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Hearthian tilted around in their hammock, regarding the smaller being in the bright blue space suit. ‘Sayaka’, they called themself. They had removed their helmet to show a pale-skinned face with only two blue eyes and short, similarly-colored fur going down from the top of their head. After all the surprise had waned, they had started eating marshmallows and were now swaying along to the flute's long, low tones. It was a crazy streak of coincidence, finding them up at the cannon, but it was one they could appreciate. Of course they could, it was new life! Not quite the nomai, but still revolutionary. Extending a hand to them felt natural, they looked out of their depth and there was no space ship to be found. Sayaka had basically confirmed they had no such thing at their disposal, though communication left a lot to be desired. Gabbro had always been more of a poet than a linguist, they couldn't figure things out like the translation project back at Timber Hearth. They would be better off communicating through drawings, hoping that symbols would be a clear method to someone from whichever culture Sayaka lived in. After that... they'd call Hornfels, see if they could get Sayaka to Timber Hearth or the Attlerock. As much as they liked Giant's Deep, it wasn't as safe as their home planet in any way, so getting her there seemed smart, especially close to the translation project. A brief shift in focus wouldn't be too bad for them.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sayaka looked at them with curiosity as Gabbro rose up, hooking their flute back onto their suit and instead grabbing the first stick they could find. The Hearthian made a few small drawings in the sand, a circle with a wavy pattern, with a small ship around it. They glanced at Sayaka, who nodded in understanding. Then, they drew a few more circles: A bumpy circle, a circle with some trees and two circles interlocked with a line. An arrow was pointed towards the one with the trees, the one Gabbro’s people call Timber Hearth. Then, they drew that line from Timber Hearth to Giant’s Deep, with a small space ship in the middle. Sayaka tilted her head slightly in confusion as they took a stick of their own and drew next to Giant’s Deep, a circle with pieces jutting out.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ah, Dark Bramble. They’d meant to draw it last, not really thinking that place would be relevant. Might’ve been on them for assuming. They pointed to Sayaka, then to Dark Bramble, which was responded to with a nod, and a few more drawings. An arrow pointing outward from Dark bramble to… a smaller dark bramble. Then from there to another planet and a drawing of the sun. Teleportation of sorts? Or non-euclidean space? That had often been Gabbro’s theory surrounding the strange planet, but they hadn’t moved to confirm it since Feldspar’s disappearance. It wouldn’t make sense with the laws of the universe as the Hearthians knew them, but neither did quite a few other things Gabbro found around the solar system. They could believe Sayaka on their word (or drawing) for now. Went through some sort of bramble from her own planet, couldn’t return and was stranded here. Sounded believable.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gabbro continued drawing, showing a ship on Timber Hearth and drawing a radio, which they connected to the ship, Giant's Deep and Sayaka's line. They leaned back and let the idea hang for a moment. After a brief back-and-forth of pointing and nodding, they were fairly sure Sayaka understood the idea.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>With permission granted, Gabbro started tuning their radio, matching it with ground control's frequency in the hopes Hornfels would notice quickly.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey, Hornfels. You there?” They spoke into the microphone, keeping two eyes on Sayaka.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“As always. What’s the dirt, Gabbro? You’re calling earlier than usual.” Came a reply that, while intrigued, sounded about as matter-of-fact as Hornfels always sounded on their check-ins.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Got some pretty neat stuff.” They replied vaguely. “So, I was up at the Nomai space station around Giant’s Deep, just seeing if I could find anything interesting there, when I saw an alien standing around, all disoriented and stuff. Made contact and brought ‘em here, they seem trustworthy.” Gabbro summarized it neatly, tone as calm as if they were talking about the weather, if said weather ever changed on this planet. They waited for Hornfels to process that information with a small smile on their face, almost feeling their surprise and confusion.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That’s… That’s amazing! They trusted you just like that? How did it go? What do they look like!?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey, if I was stranded in a different solar system I’d think it’s a pretty worthwhile risk. It still took a bit to string them along, though. There’s a bothersome language barrier.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gabbro could feel that their fellow hearthian was still brimming with questions, but they decided not to feed them too much "You can take your own look later, but they're kind of similar to us. I think it's safer for them to be at Timber Hearth than here, so we should probably escort them there. I may have sort of lost my ship, so if you could get Chert or Riebeck to pick us up, that would be neat."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You </span>
  <em>
    <span>lost </span>
  </em>
  <span>your ship?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Kinda. Think I see it float around sometim-”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Never mind, letting it go. Chert was gearing up for a flight to the Twins anyway, I’ll ask them if they can pick you two up. Anything else we need to know?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gabbro glanced towards Sayaka, who they thought felt almost at home amongst the raging seas, for whatever reason. They recalled the sword they had pulled out of thin air and dismissed just as easily, in a flourish of salty-smelling blue lights. Had that been a technological property of her suit, or something different?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Their name’s Sayaka.” They said eventually, leaving it out entirely. “Think they're still a hatchling, or whatever their equivalent is. They can eat marshmallows, so their diet is probably pretty similar to ours. Make sure they don’t get overwhelmed, wouldn’t want to scare them.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They let the call run its course, saying their goodbyes and shifting the radio to its usual broadcasting frequency. Sayaka’s questioning tilt of the head was answered with a thumbs up. Gabbro took a few seconds to see if Sayaka wanted to know anything else, before once more lifting their flute and drifting away on its tones.</span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>The flute was missing something, Sayaka thought.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She had been listening to the conversation between Gabbro and whoever was on the other side -’Hornfels’, she thought- despite not understanding a whole lot of the words spoken. There wasn’t a lot else to do at first. She had been quick to notice that there were other islands drifting on the sea planet, but she never quite could see what they entailed from the distance. Most of them seemed rocky, with one looking more ‘designed’ and one having a plant that looked creepily like the planet she had come out of. It was probably possible for her to just walk there, given her proficiency with water, but worrying her new charge wasn’t something she wanted to do. Instead, she decided to listen to them.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They definitely weren’t missing any skill. The flute, which reminded her of a shehnai but sounded more like a bass- or panflute, was being played with proper, constant sounds that, while hard to hear over the storm at times, sounded beautiful. But it wasn’t really a song, they were just tones. Like the flute was a backup to something else, most likely. She had a hard time picturing which instruments, as there were a lot of melodies she could picture over it. Heck, she could almost feel them as she hummed along, harmonizing her voice to get a feel of it. The moment she ‘got’ it, she puckered her lips and let loose a whistle, just as soft under the storm but musical alongside it, a contrasting higher pitch with a lively melody, reminiscent of the tweeting of birds.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The two seemed to hear each other despite the surrounding cacophony, the two seemed to hear each other just fine, adjusting their volumes to each other and following up to develop what felt like a whole new section. It still felt like they missed something, with only two instruments, but once their small song ended, Sayaka couldn’t help but grin. She was glad that even this far away, they still had music.She wanted to ask if there was anyone else Gabbro knew who could play music, but before she could figure out how to draw that out, she heard a roaring sound above her, causing her to look up and see a ship she would call… quaint. It was certainly working, it was large enough to fit multiple people, but it didn’t look like it should be flying. The cockpit was made out of strong material, some sort of steel, but the landing gear was partially made out of wood, as were a lot of other ship parts. Various tanks were held together with some sort of tape. The fact that it wasn’t on fire from the atmosphere was one of the few reasons Sayaka trusted that ship. Watching whoever was flying that ship carefully land it was another; seemed to be an experienced flyer.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gabbro hummed a sound of approval, joy perhaps, as they stood up and moseyed on over to the ship, Sayaka closely tailing behind. A hatch on the bottom of the ship flipped open and out hopped another one of Gabbro’s species, though a lot smaller than them. Heck, they were quite a bit shorter than sayaka. Their space suit was shaped very differently, reminding her more of an egg than anything else, being a lot less fitting than Gabbro’s suit as far as she could tell. After a few moments of excited high-pitched chittering to Gabbro, they introduced themself as ‘Chert’, making a few small gestures she didn’t quite grasp before motioning her towards the ship. Entering after Chert, she felt a pull of gravity lifting her inside, where it was even more wooden, with the exceptions of the various computers. It all looked rather complicated, a strong contrast to the quaintness both aliens radiated. A little bonsai tree was set up next to the corner, likely as an oxygen source on top of the tanks. Small maps that almost looked like tourist cards were hung around and there were loads of guides and star maps everywhere. Her eyes also lingered on a drum sitting next to the fliers’ seat. That made for two members, both more background players. Their instruments were archaic, but still very reminiscent of things she could find on earth. That probably meant that they had similar living circumstances, then. That was fortunate.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The sound of rockets going off and an increase in pressure roused Sayaka from her. This ship evidently wasn’t built for more than one person, with barely enough space for three, so she held on tight. Once she felt halfway stable she looked at the cockpit, watching Chert fly with obvious expertise, setting course for a blue planet not too far away. Seeing that planet dawn upon them so quickly really drilled the miniscule size of this system into her. It looked like there were only a few kilometers between the gas giant and her destination. How the heck did this solar system even exist? She didn’t need to be an expert to guess it should’ve collapsed in on itself by now. Gravity wouldn’t be working correctly otherwise. She was looking her eyes out at the strangeness of it all, focusing on the planet slowly coming into view. It looked a lot like a small earth, as she’d hoped. It was littered with geysers and groves, but mostly… empty. A lot of the planet was just a grassy field with an occasional tree here or there. No sprawling cities, unless they had something underground. They must be a small group of people.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The temperature of the ship slowly rose as it descended through the atmosphere, going from dark to not-much-lighter as the trio entered the night sky above a village, about as small as Sayaka had suspected. Their landing was somewhat bumpy, but nothing she couldn’t survive. She exited the ship after Chert and Gabbro, at least trusting one of them but not knowing what to expect. She had lost track of time entirely, but it couldn’t have been more than a few hours since she was at home. Now, she was on a planet surrounded by aliens with no hope of getting home by herself. It worried her how little it affected her. Like this was… normal, compared to the usual experience. How wrong the old days Akemi tried to rebuild were compared to freaking space flight. The sky above her, more alive and full of color than any she’d seen before, felt right to her. Devoid of the mistakes that tainted everything. Akemi’s, Madoka’s and her own failings. She wanted to rectify everything, but for now, she was stuck, feeling useless. She probably wouldn’t be getting home unless Akemi or the Incubator decided to come to her, and that would set her back to zero. Guess that’s more planning time on the block.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She sighed, loudly enough for her contemporaries to turn towards her for a second. It felt like she’d messed up worse than before, but at least it was new. She felt like she could get along with these people.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So, that took a while. No particular facts for this chapter, but I think I'm starting to find direction now. I started this with a beginning and ending in mind and I'm solidfying the middle section in proper now. All that's left is longer chapters.</p><p>Minor thing, but I recently noticed that the Hearthians and the frog people from A Story About Your Uncle are very similar in appearance and aesthetic. Wonder if that is connected in any way, they're both amazing games. Though for different reasons.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. It Was Made In Heaven</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>‘Fate’ is a concept that most beings, whether they believe in it or not, would define as the idea that everything is predetermined. This was not quite how the Incubator saw it. Though Fate was all but proven to them, they saw it more as a set of points on a line. No matter how the line would move, it would always arrive at certain points. In some areas, these points were more tightly knit than others. The Mitakihara area had been an excellent example, with Fate’s many strings wrapping around Madoka Kaname and Homura Akemi, beings it had previously considered malleable assets. But with this many strings in one place, some were bound to get worn out and snap. The Incubator’s ambitions were met with not one but two kudoclasms as the world reshaped around those most strongly bound to Fate, turning it from an inevitability to a possibility. While this was initially not a great change, further into this reformed universe it seemed like a boon; staving off the ‘Ultimate Fate of the universe’ could become more than a delay, it could be a permanent  solution under the right circumstances. Now though, it realized that that hypothesis was immature. Especially as it had discovered that its calculations regarding entropy’s effect on the universe had been off, whether slightly or completely. It and the other terminals had been busy mulling over proposals and hypotheses that could hope to explain what exactly went wrong. A common one had been the idea that they had confused linear and exponential growth at some point in the equation, a beginner’s mistake that it could find no trace of. But with the collective’s current disarray, it was unlikely that it would get anything more rational. Truly, their arguing left it weary. Instead of tuning in to them any more, it decided to observe the Mitakihara area in the same way it had done worlds ago. This time it measured out the effects of Miki Sayaka and Akemi's disappearances, something it considered important as well as perfectly menial. It was not considered as high of a priority by the collective, but they had accepted that this Incubator deviated from the other terminals for a good reason, so it was granted leniency.</p><p>It roused from the tangential thoughts it was experiencing, bulbous red eyes fluttering open as it rose from the tree branch it had sat on. Signatures matching its main subjects of interest, Kyouko Sakura and Madoka Kaname, were approaching. Both of them were closely tied to Akemi and Miki, more so than to each other. The likelihood that they had noticed and were suspicious of the disappearance of their friends was guaranteed. The Incubator swiftly jumped to a different branch, allowing it to properly listen in.</p><p>“So it was pretty obvious something was going on to me, but I didn’t expect her to just up and vanish! A few days after Akemi, too! The fuck’s up with that?” Kyouko’s voice rang with an annoyed tone as she ran her fingers through her poorly-combed red ponytail.</p><p>“Y-yeah, it’s weird, isn’t it?” Replied a more timid voice, that of Madoka Kaname. “Homura likes to disappear sometimes, but Sayaka so soon after… that’s not like her.”</p><p>The incubator kept a close ear on them as they conversed, hopping from shadow to shadow and tree to tree. Sayaka Miki had been close with both of them, and Akemi was also near, having been amicable in the previous world. She had a tendency to pull back however, something which often confused it even if it did not behoove to ask why she didn’t seize the chances she made. Even now, Akemi’s mental stability was questionable, so it did not want to reach too deep.</p><p>Oh, they had continued. Must’ve slipped past it, somehow. Hopefully nothing too important escaped its notice.</p><p>“So I was planning to check out Sayaka’s place after this, detective-style. She ain’t very subtle, so there’s probably a clue there. You wanna tag along?”</p><p>Oh. This might be more significant than it had expected. Putting a rogue element like Sayaka Miki in a vulnerable position had been intentional, despite not being preferable. Entangling these two, however, was far from desirable. Akemi had spoken of failsafes she refused to elaborate on, but with her far away it did not want to take any risks with humans as fate-entwined as these. Their looser connection in previous universes wouldn’t matter once they figured out the truth. It sent out a preemptive query, in case Akemi returned to the radar, and dashed off to Sayaka’s home. It had to erase some evidence.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>School felt strange without Sayaka around, madoka thought. It was as if time had slowed down. If she could, she would’ve up and left to go searching for her by now. Even Kyouko wouldn’t try to break the rules like that, jittery as it made the redhead. Kyouko hadn’t been friends with her for very long, but had gotten just as close to Sayaka as Madoka had in that time. Having a first friend disappear like that was alarming, but they had no choice but to pace themselves. No one around them seemed to have even noticed. Madoka had been tempted to call the police, but somehow that felt <em> wrong </em>. Like involving other people would cause more problems than they would solve. Like it ran deeper than the police could solve.</p><p>When the final bell rang, the two ran out with haste. The class looked confused but paid it no mind, quickly returning to packing their bags. Madoka had to stop Kyouko from breaking into a dead sprint, convincing her that getting tired would make investigating harder and that Sayaka’s room wouldn’t just empty itself.</p><p>“You’re right, you’re right.” Kyouko conceded, grumbling. “Don’t know what we’re expecting to find there, anyway. What kinda clues could she leave there, something on her computer?”</p><p>“I-i’m not sure, I think she might have some notes there. She must have had a reason for disappearing so suddenly. She was home all weekend, she couldn’t have been kidnapped. Maybe it has something to do with Homura? Since they, uh, don’t get along. I don’t know how, but...”</p><p>“Yeah, that’s probably it. She’s never explained what kinda beef they got, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they fell into something together. Maybe we should bust in at Akemi’s place after this, in case we’re right.” The redhead suggested. Even if it could be a bit… illegal, she was willing to toe that line if it concerned Sayaka.</p><p>Madoka hesitantly agreed with it, proposing they try the legal way first. Upon arrival at Sayaka’s apartment, they were greeted by her mother, who looked rather haggard. She was reluctant to let the two snooping kids into her child’s room, but was understanding enough to relent, leading the duo to the ‘scene of the crime’. It didn’t look too different from what Kyouko expected and remembered: The cream-colored walls were lined with concert and movie posters, a shelf was lined with various manga, and the soft floor was littered with clothes and books the bluenette couldn’t be bothered to pick up. Her desk was more clean in comparison, only having her laptop shut and her radio, with its antenna pointed in some odd direction. It didn take the two more than a few minutes of examination to realize that they wouldn’t be finding anything of worth. Sayaka's laptop was locked behind a password neither could guess and not even a single note or textbook had a clue written in its margins.</p><p>Kyouko sighed exasperatedly, dropping herself on Sayaka’s bed. “Well, that was fuckin’ useless. Don’t know what I was expecting, but…” She sighed once more and sat up, checking on Madoka. The pinkette wasn’t done investigating, still fiddling with the radio Sayaka had put there. A few moments later the device sprung to life, playing the sound of a harmonica, more organic than recorded music. Not the sort of thing Sayaka would normally listen to, Kyouko figured. She remembered her friend’s excited monologues about orchestras and big bands, single-instrument stuff like this didn’t fit that. Maybe she was reaching, but Kyouko figured it meant something.</p><p>“It doesn’t sound as clean as a recorded song… maybe it’s live?” Madoka thought out loud, picking the radio up. Seemed like she had the same reach as Kyouko there. She played around a bit with the antenna and settings, the sound fluctuating along with her actions.</p><p>“What’re you doing there?” Kyouko asked to fill the silence, getting up and next to Madoka, keeping a better eye on her messing.</p><p>“Trying to see if it can show where the broadcast is coming from.” Madoka replied with a determined tone. “I think…” She picked up the radio and walked around the room, reading something off of the display. A glance out of the window seemed to confirm her thoughts. “It’s coming from her house. Homura’s house.”</p><p>“Well, I’ll be damned. Guess we really do gotta check in there, huh?” Kyouko grinned, trying to pass relief off for confidence. Seems like they still had a lead.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>“You know, I don’t think there’s a place in this city that screams ‘Homura Akemi’ more than this one. It’s the perfect den for that drama queen, all old ‘n dark and shit.” Kyouko commented on the towering building in front of them, akin in style to the more old-european looking buildings around it, but much taller and darker. She had rung the doorbell, hearing the noise reverberate through the house, even through the thick walls. She wasn’t expecting anyone to open up; Akemi had mentioned living completely alone and unless she was there, which Kyouko doubted, there wouldn’t be anyone to open the doors.</p><p>“She does always come off as foreboding, doesn’t she? I-i don’t get why she does it, but… it’s probably why Sayaka doesn’t get along with her.”</p><p>“I dunno, seems to me like they’d get along great if that was all. Sayaka’s just as dramatic sometimes, just in that ‘heroic’ way of hers. Fuck, maybe they’re just doing a bit all the time, ‘hero’ versus ‘villain’.” Kyouko joked, though she accentuated it with a shrug; it made as much sense to her as it did to Madoka. Sayaka didn't explain it to her and getting Akemi to open up that much was impossible, even for Madoka. How the pinkette managed to even get Akemi to be friendly with them was a mystery to Kyouko. Not that she minded, but still.</p><p>The redhead rummaged through the pockets of her hoodie and pulled out a lockpick. "Don’t think anyone’s opening up anytime soon. Mind if I give it a go?” She didn’t wait for an answer before going to work, fumbling around with the lock while Madoka kept guard. Kyouko was pretty sure Madoka didn’t know anything about her experience with this sort of thing, so she was glad the girl knew not to raise questions. After a minute or so of work, the lock sprang open and the door fell ajar.</p><p>With a few casual steps inside, Kyouko was tempted to make a snarky comment about how easy it was, if it wasn’t for the strange sense of anxiety she felt the moment she crossed the threshold. The hallway in front of her was unnaturally dark, in a way that lended itself more to the dark of night. Despite her stubbornness and the evidence, her mind was starting to rationalize that whatever was inside wasn’t worth entering this place. It wasn’t even that scary a place, but it felt like she briefly wasn’t thinking for herself.</p><p>To her surprise, Madoka didn’t show any of that hesitation, stepping forwards and past Kyouko with a determined look in her eyes, her earlier reluctance almost invisible. It felt out-of-character to Kyouko, who had only known the timid girl for a month by now, but at the same time it felt right in a way she couldn’t properly explain. Like she was seeing a realer Madoka.</p><p>“Let’s go, Kyouko. I’m sure we can find something here.” She prompted with a cautious smile, before continuing onwards. As if the mystique of the hallway faded, Kyouko recovered quickly and followed behind.</p><p>Red eyes widened not too far away as the Incubator took notice of the opening door. It had expected to have more time, but it seemed like the door wasn’t secure at all. It had been sloppy when it dismissed the radio in Sayaka Miki's room, it could not afford to make such a mistake again. Hopefully the inside had been prepared better. </p><hr/><p>Unfortunately for the Incubator, the mistress of the house hadn’t been able to take notice of the breach just yet. Not that she had cared about setting up such defenses against them. She had enough faith in her passive mechanisms, anyway. And besides, why bother? Any efforts against her were most likely futile, so why would she douse the fire when she could sweep up the ashes for the same result? The housekeepers could do that for her, anyway. She was tired.</p><p>She and Feldspar hadn’t spoken much, though she was sure they had a lot of questions for each other. Homura was still curious about the Dark Bramble and she was sure Feldspar wanted to know about her species and world as much as she wanted to know about theirs.  She needed to deal with the problem at hand however, no matter how far or close it could be. The fact that the amount of time she had eluded her was a problem too, an unusual defiance of her ability, but she could do nothing about that but haste. As of late, many things seemed to elude her. The Brambles, the state of the universe, Madoka and her friends’ actions… keeping track of a whole universe was taking its toll and she had gotten careless. Especially within the Bramble, sensing the others was difficult. It was as if the thick fog around her didn’t just obstruct her sight, but the very thoughts inside of her brain from reaching far. She couldn’t quite wrap her head around it, but it didn’t feel wrong per se. It was simply the way things were.</p><p>‘The way things were’ was an obstacle to her now though, one she was actively plotting against. Not unlike a certain blue-haired rebel, she did so with the sound of music as a focus. Feldspar had gone as far as to teach her the harmonica, an instrument she found surprisingly fun, but she had resorted to simply listening for the time being.</p><p>The major problem, that of the sudden increase of entropy, didn’t have a simple solution. Entropy could be slowed down, but stopping it was impossible. Now it was speeding up, like water rushing to fill a depression in its surface. It made the very idea of a solution seem out of reach; Her capabilities defied physics as most knew them, but the amount of energy she could produce could never keep up with the universe’s demands. The Incubator had needed thousands of years to fulfill quotas that amounted to nothing. They would need more space for the entropy and energy to fit in, otherwise it seemed unlikely they could escape their ultimate fate. </p><p>Which meant that, in lieu of any way to destroy or revert entropy, she would need to find or create more space to accommodate it. Something that was much easier said than done. But now, she had the resources. She could afford to run a few experiments even with haste. Way back, when her only domain was time, limited as it was, she had done the same to figure out aspects of this world that few others could claim to know. Now that she had relinquished most of that domain, she would need to substitute it with sheer numbers. There were enough Incubators available, she assumed, and-</p><p>A small weight on her shoulder interrupted her train of thought; A small black salamander had taken its seat there, purple eyes dull, but clearly staring at Homura. It was a small familiar she had set out just outside of Dark Bramble, in case any urgent messages would come along. She couldn’t tell if Feldspar was magically sensitive enough to see it, but if they were they didn’t show it. She paid one last glance to the music-playing Hearthian before reciprocating the familiar’s greeting and granting it permission to speak.</p><p>The raven-haired soul nodded through the report, trying to create the illusion that she was simply drifting along to the music, while trying to keep as calm as she could. The information she received was aggravating, but she believed her façade was convincing. If what the salamander said was true, not only had Sayaka fucking Miki gotten into this solar system without her knowing, but Madoka and Kyouko had gotten suspicious and started investigating their disappearances. As if she couldn’t spend one day away from home without everything going to shit.</p><p>Sayaka Miki being in this solar system was definitely a problem… but she was most likely stuck here. If she had been here for a while without dying, putting her back on earth wouldn’t be high priority, maybe worth an envoy if it actually became pressing. Madoka and Kyouko, however… they hadn’t regained their memories if the familiar was correct, so a few distractions could most likely suffice. That wouldn’t be too hard. The Incubator had maintained its talent for that sort of thing, but if there was time lost…</p><p>
  <em> "Order the Incubator to find a short-term solution and build on it. Involve Rosetta and Philae. Ask it about the possibility of artificial space expansion or alternate universes if the time is there. I will return momentarily.” </em>
</p><p>That would do it. Rosetta and Philae were two human assets, usually employed as enforcers in case other variables on earth acted out. She had employed them herself, making a ‘deal with the devil’, in her own words. They had turned out much more reliable than she could hope for, they could reinforce whatever illusion the Incubator built. It was an idea more logical and likely to succeed than her other one. If they could figure out a concrete way to weave the fabric of the universe, it could turn out well. If, instead, they broke through the walls of the universe and spilled their entropy in a younger world, it would be selfish, but save herself all the same. It was an impulsive concept, highly illogical with no base in their current knowledge, but they had defied logic before. She would make sure it happened again.</p><p>As she watched the Lizard scurry into the mist, away from Feldspar’s strange artificial gravity device, Homura finally noticed the quiet. Feldspar had stopped playing. Maybe her front hadn’t been as solid as she thought. Her suspicion was confirmed once they asked if she was okay. After a bit of mental hedging, she decided it couldn’t hurt to be honest about it for once, and she shook her head.</p><p>“Thought so, you’re not the type to sit still, are you? Think I can help you out on that one, Dark Bramble’s a neat place to fly through. I can give you some interesting directions if you want, maybe it’ll occupy your thoughts.”</p><p>Homura nodded, to at least let herself be distracted in word if nothing else. An opportunity to learn wouldn’t hurt, perhaps she would find some key here. Probably not, but whatever. She was tired.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Kyouko rummaged through the pockets of her hoodie and pulled out a lockpick. "Don’t think anyone’s opening up anytime soon. Mind if I give it a go?” She didn’t wait for an answer before going to work, fumbling around with the lock while Madoka kept guard. Kyouko was pretty sure Madoka didn’t know anything about her experience with this sort of thing, so she was glad the girl knew not to raise questions. After a minute or so of work, the lock sprang open and the door fell ajar. She froze up, beset by a sudden and strange sense of deja vu, but was not given a moment to wonder about it as the door was opened further.</p><p>By someone on the other side. Had she waited just a few seconds, she would’ve gotten in much easier. Damn, hopefully they didn't mind.</p><p>“Apologies for my tardiness. I was busy on a higher floor. The walk down the stairs can be rather taxing.” Spoke a neutrally-toned androgynous voice, sounding as if they hadn’t noticed the door being forced open. “What is your business here?”</p><p>By then, Madoka and Kyouko had already figured it couldn’t be Homura, but despite seeming somewhat familiar in presence, neither could identify the stranger in front of them. Their skin was pale and they had large, red eyes, much like someone with albinism. This seemed confirmed by their even paler white hair, long and braided thrice with a single streak of purple. Emoting certainly did not seem to be their strong suit, being far from stoic but still completely expressionless.</p><p>“Uh, right... “ Kyouko hesitated for a bit, not sure who she was talking to, “We’re looking for Homura Akemi. She lives here, doesn’t she? Said she lives here alone, matter of fact, so I’m not sure what you’re doing here.”</p><p>“She would not be lying. Miss Akemi is out of town to deal with personal business. She asked me to keep an eye on her home in the meantime.” They claimed in a monotonous tone, hands hidden in the pockets of a hoodie as white as their skin. It didn’t sound like they were lying to Kyouko, but they didn’t seem quite truthful either. Just a bit perturbing. She looked back at Madoka, who seemed under the same impression. They’d need to know more about… whoever this was.</p><p>“I-i see,” Madoka started, “I think I believe you. B-but Homura hasn’t mentioned anyone like you before. Who are you?”</p><p>“My name is Quaid Baren. I was a close friend of Miss Akemi’s parents before they passed away. I was named her legal guardian shortly afterwards, though she preferred to live on her own since then, as I’m sure you would expect of her. I periodically check on her, but otherwise try to respect her wishes.” They shrugged as if pushing off the suspicions they could feel pointed at them. “Is that all you wanted to know? If you have a problem with Miss Akemi’s behaviour, I would not mind discussing it. I have some tea br-”</p><p>“Nah, no need. She’s kinda weird, but she’s alright.” Kyouko interjected with a strange sense of haste. “Got one more question for you, though. You know if Akemi’s had any trouble with a ‘Sayaka Miki’ lately?”</p><p>“I do not believe I have heard that name before, no.”</p><p>“Guess that’s it then,” Kyouko sighed, turning around, “Gotta keep looking. See you around, Baren.” She grabbed Madoka’s hand and pulled her along, down the steps and back to the the streets, not even hearing Quaid’s farewell.</p><p>“K-kyouko?” Madoka stammered, confused. “What’s the matter?”</p><p>“You noticed it too, right? That one’s bad business. Gives me the creeps for some reason. Pretty sure they’re not being very honest with us.”</p><p>“I thought so, too. They don’t seem good to me, but I don’t know if we’re getting anything out of them. At least, no full truths. Maybe if we come back later? They’re definitely suspicious, but I don’t think they’re out to hurt us.”</p><p>Kyouko gave the pinkette a pat on the back. “That’s an optimistic way to look at it. Kinda naive, though. But it’s not like we’ve got another place to go. They were being vague, so we can learn more from them. Gotta plan that out first though. You up for that?”</p><p>A hesitant nod. “Sure. I hope we can figure something out.”</p><p>Kyouko chuckled softly, slouching a bit as she followed after Madoka. “You and me both.”</p><hr/><p>After closing the door on the two inquisitive girls, the Incubator couldn’t help but sigh in relief. It hadn’t expected to actually ward off either of the girls, being inexperienced with this body and having an unnatural speech pattern. At least it seemed like the humanoid terminal Akemi designed was functioning. It was originally built to help it interface more easily with human technology, but it was proving a good tool overall. It could get used to this.</p><p>Upon turning around to traverse the shifting hallways of Akemi’s residence, it felt a familiar presence form in the shadows. Once the lights finally turned on, it could confirm its assumption: A taller woman with short purple hair, lined with an amount of pins exceeding countability. She was dressed rather casually, but her stern, formal presence showed someone different; One of Akemi’s highest ‘guards’, more akin to a rook than a pawn.</p><p>
  <span>“Rosetta,” The incubator stated. “I thank you for aiding us on such a short notice. I imagine they would have been a lot more persistent had it not been for you pulling them back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rosetta nodded, keeping her gray eyes trained on the Incubator with a sort of curiosity. “No problem, no issue. Got to see you put on a show anyway, so it was worth the trouble. I’m surprised you managed to hold them off the way you did. Been practicing human behavior or something?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not at all.” It shook its head. “Akemi’s influence on this world extends to me as well, since I was present at her apotheosis. It most likely awakened traces of emotions within myself, faint as they are. The collective deemed it detrimental, but as you saw, it has its uses.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“True. Helps you understand situations, but those kids and children aren’t going to fall for it much anymore, you ain’t very convincing. I’ll guess that’s why you called me and Philae in?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Correct. Akemi is currently dealing with a chaotic situation off-world and our surveillance has suffered as a result. You and Philae are well-suited for the necessary obfuscation and possible recontainment, should that become necessary. Accepting this offer can result in some interesting opportunities, should you choose to accept.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Its proposal was met with a plain, skeptical stare. Not moments later, it warmed up as Rosetta took out an old flip phone and dialed in a number. “Hey, Philae, love? We’ve got another job, think this one’ll be cool.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Incubator exercised the muscles around its mouth, forming them into a poor attempt at a smile. How fortunate this was. From experience it knew that Rosetta and Philae were the most competent of Akemi’s few soldiers. It was likely that this operation would be finished in their favour soon enough.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I've seen some people refer to Kyubey as QB on occasion, which means its real name is Quentin Barantino.</p><p>No lore this time either. In the initial draft for this chapter I referred to the hallways of Homura's home as Non-Euclidean. Since that term is incredibly broad I removed it for this instance so I can describe it in detail at a later point. The bar for the descriptor is very low, but the jumps can be very high.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Saturnine Spheres</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Under the shadow of the ever-approaching heat death, Sayaka was left basically unattended by the two universe-spanning forces usually out to get her. She considered this a moment to breathe, to take a step back and figure out what she was supposed to do. That’s what she tried, at least. Upon arrival she had assumed that she could stay on the down-low, but as it turnt out a planet with days and nights lasting minutes, the natives weren’t keen on sleeping every night. They hadn’t approached her, with Gabbro being a sort of barrier, but she could never quite shake the feeling of the dozens of eyes staring at her, excited about alien life but still tense. It made sense why they felt that way, but it left her overwhelmed regardless, especially with the energy from the last few hours beginning to fade. It was a very sudden tiredness, nothing like how she felt after hunting wraiths or witches in previous iterations. This was a more human tiredness, for lack of a better term. Chert and Gabbro had noticed it quickly and led her to a house, one she assumed to be Gabbro’s by the sight of a hammock on the upper floor. Then again, maybe the people here just didn’t have beds. Something to think on when her priorities were less hectic. With some caution she laid down in the hammock, needing a bit to get used to its curve, and closed her eyes. Sleep didn’t come easy to her, unfortunately, tired as she was. She couldn’t help but think.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This town and its people didn’t seem to make sense to her. The planet itself was already strange with how barren it looked from space, but this town had developed in a weird way too. She hadn’t seen too much, but what she had looked at was primitive. The only electricity-powered things she had seen were radios and maybe the lanterns. Nothing else around resembled modern technology, unless it was a spacecraft. Even those were partially made of wood, however. She was surprised and impressed that these people had made it into space with ships like that and patchwork space suits. It did still break basically everything she knew, much like everything else in this solar system. Maybe that was why Akemi had come here.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When she first arrived through the portal, Sayaka had faintly sensed the Akemi’s presence. It had been unusual, like looking through a fogged-up window, or seeing double. As no one had come after her yet, she assumed that the window was blinded and Homura could not sense her. The Demon might be the only ticket home she had, but she’d prefer going on her own terms. She would figure out the way herself, or at least find a clue to her puzzle here. After all, Homura abandoning her usual post to come here meant there was something useful about this system. The plant’s warping of space could be useful, but was difficult to harness, but that left five other planets up for grabs. She had seen them orbiting the small sun, each looking like something she hadn’t seen in her life, not even in the photos from the fanciest telescopes she kept track of. There must be something here for her, if for no other reason than to keep her hope up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When slumber did catch her, it was most like a blink. It didn’t feel like time had passed, but she felt rested so she didn’t worry about it. There were none of the usual nightmares, no early waking or bad vibes. Just some good sleeping. Again, weirdly normal for the abnormal world.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gabbro was still there, having set up another hammock and looking as relaxed as could be, which at this point was no more relaxed than usual. Upon noticing her waking, they shifted to face her with a nod, leaving initiative to get up to her. She didn’t take it just yet, stretching herself out. The sun shone partially through the curtain pulled over a close-by window, but it had shifted from night to day quickly in the time she was awake, like she had seen the first time she landed. Part of her was left wondering if time simply passed quicker in a different sense, like this was a time-bubble Akemi somehow created and she was tricked into entering, made to waste away-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nope. She derailed that train of thought. Seemed against Akemi’s principles. It did instill a sense of restlessness in her as she tried to drive it away, finally rising out of the hammock and opening the curtain. She could see the amphibian aliens milling about already, talking, having fun and working. When the moon suddenly crossed over the horizon, spinning around the planet much faster than the sun, she could swear she saw a similarly-styled wooden house there, as well as smoke. They could have set up permanent residence there, no? That was badass, especially when they kept the same style of housing. Earth’s Moon Architecture had started off much more sterile and boring before they got the homely houses that her family had vacationed in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She turned her head back down to the town, noting that despite its primitiveness, it still had that observatory standing above all the other buildings in the crater. It had the same style as the others, being made of wood, but she couldn’t deny that the large telescope looked quite advanced. If there was any place that carried advanced technology, that observatory would be it. There weren’t any other towns for it to go towards, after all. That had intrigued her, too. A population this small was virtually unknown to her. Sayaka didn’t know enough about amphibian reproduction to know if that was connected to it. They must have been here for a long time to have developed space travel, which brought her even more confusion to the case. It wasn’t like she could ask, so she did stuff it back into her head. She needed to go and do something, to make sure she was making the most of her stay here and wouldn’t start brooding over things she shouldn’t. She turned around and headed for the stairs, having heard Gabbro call her name. It was probably time for breakfast, and then to see what this world had to offer her.</span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Breakfast had been a short affair, not one Sayaka cared about a lot. She and Gabbro were lucky that they shared a similar diet, in the form of fish and fruits. The taste wasn’t anything different from back home, but it had sated what little hunger she felt, even when her soul gem removed the need for it. Eating was still better for her body than not eating, so she had indulged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As relaxed as Gabbro was, they had a similar feeling of purpose as herself, leading her out of the house and in the direction of the observatory. She had left her space suit back at Gabbro’s, enjoying the sun and cool breeze in normal clothes rather than melting in that isolating thing. It helped her appreciate how earth-like this planet was in comparison to the water planet. That place was all cold and wet to the point of overstimulating her, while this was just a brisk summer’s day… and night. Day and night shifted so often during her walk that she had become used to it. It helped accentuate some of the village, with the lanterns illuminating it cozily. The kids kept playing, hide-and-seek or with model airships. One was throwing rocks at a crystal formation, causing it to light up in a strange way. As they passed them, Gabbro greeted every single one to instill at least those words into Sayaka, which proved effective once she got the pronunciation right.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It didn’t take long to reach the observatory, just enough for day to shift into night and back again. She was, surprisingly, left alone the entire way. Still greeted, but no one approached her, hopefully out of respect for her acclimation rather than fear or something. Upon first entering the observatory, she made the quick guess that it was meant to help with her acclimation: It was museum-like, with signs covered in text reminding her of morse code, as well as many images. Maybe they would construct a means of communication here, too. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gabbro passed her some gestures she interpreted as ‘stay here and look around’ before strolling up a spiraling platform in the observatory’s main, circular room. Sayaka did not pass up this chance to look around, starting with the text. It might have been morse-code like, but she felt like it was based in an alphabet more like western languages. She would probably be better off trying to communicate in English writing, then. Suddenly she was glad that she had studied to get her English grade up, even if it wasn’t great still.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her eyes wandered ahead of her through the exhibit. Some of the technology showcased was alien to her, completely unknown even. There was nice pottery and something that reminded her of an old moon lander, equipped with a camera. There was a crystal that shifted her gravity to the walls. She passed by an exhibit showing a small anglerfish, and one demonstrating the effects of a supernova, making her wonder how they figured such things out. Finally, there was a strange language written on a piece of rock, one that strengthened her hypothesis for why they came here. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She made a second pass through the museum, questioning the anglerfish's habitat and why  Gabbro was taking so long, until she spotted a passage she had ignored earlier. It led to an open air section of the museum, featuring only three tree stumps and a strange rock, unlike anything Sayaka had seen before. It was a darker purple colored in irregular shades, about as tall as her and littered with holes and dents. When she walked up to touch it, she thought the texture was similar to glass, even if it was much tougher. It didn’t look like anything she would expect on this planet, or any of the ones she’d seen, so it had to be alien to this world as well. That meant there had to be more to this thing as well, especially with the way the exhibit was set up. She figured out what ‘more’ was quickly, because the stone suddenly disappeared.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The bluenette doubled back, surprised and looking around in confusion until she found the rock perched on a different tree stump. She blinked and the rock disappeared to the stump behind her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>What?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Blink. Gone. Blink, and gone. Every time she blinked or looked away from that rock, it was somewhere else. She didn’t see it move, nor could she sense it. There was no magic involved, it just </span>
  <em>
    <span>moved</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was obvious to Sayaka how special this information was, how unique. And like any normal person, she immediately started thinking about how she could use this information to torment her enemies. Unfortunately for her, a tap on her shoulder interrupted that train of thought before it left the station.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gabbro had returned, with another amphibian that introduced themself as ‘Hornfels’. The two led her up into the observatory, which looked both modern and primitive. In some aspects it was the same as Homura’s place, namely in that she couldn’t understand a single piece of data on the walls. The simplicity of the rest of the room pleased her though, it felt like she was somewhat at home here.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hornfels took a sheet of paper from a stack and gave it to Sayaka, along with a pencil. She understood the intent and started writing on it. First the English alphabet, followed by her name, which she indicated to the two watchers. This was followed by a few example sentences and an introduction. As she wrote more and more, she figured she would be here for a while.</span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Once she had written enough for both sides of the page, filling it with sentences about herself, grammatical rules drawn and written, and some questions she wanted to ask. Once she was done, Hornfels swapped it with a folded sheet of their own, probably with similar information to teach Sayaka. She quite doubted her and their ability to learn a language from just two sheets, but it didn’t hurt to give them a chance. Who knew, she could be surprised. When everything had been exchanged, she asked for Gabbro to follow her, back to the strange stones. Sayaka hoped it could be explained without words.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gabbro nodded at the unspoken question, grabbing a stick from the clearing’s ground. Sayaka gave them the time to think on how to draw it as she continued to play around with the rock’s movements. It hadn’t moved the first few blinks, which she guessed was because of Gabbro looking at it. Once the sound of scratching on the ground had stopped, she turned back to see what Gabbro had made of the explanation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They had made two drawings. One started with a set of lines resembling a closed eye, in front of the three stumps. The rock was drawn on all three of those. Next to it, a drawing of an open eye, with the rock on only one of them. So basically, as long as you weren’t looking, the rock was everywhere? And when you did look, it chose a place to be seen in or something. That sounded pretty believable to her. Probably not the strangest thing she got entangled in, either.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gabbro waited for her to nod her understanding before they wiped away the drawing and made something new, a bit smaller. It was a small stick figure of her, with a cutlass and an arrow pointed towards it. A question for a question, she thought it fair. She didn’t actually know how her magic worked either, but a demonstration couldn’t hurt. She held one hand to her chest, as her mind reached out to her soul, grasping its liquid form and molding the magic it gave her. In less than a moment of thought, she pointed her hand to the sky and in it manifested her cutlass, sharp as ever. Its structure was slightly different from her usual blades, which were made with the intention of projectile usage. This one, exclusively for melee combat, was controlled tightly enough for her to summon it without transforming. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She held the grip out to Gabbro, wondering what they would think of it. The amphibian held it with caution, surprised by how light it was. After adjusting its grip, which was difficult with only three fingers, they started with some practice swings. Sayaka figured they had some talent, even though they were obviously inexperienced: The swings looked strong and well-measured, but the movements were obviously wasteful and a bit too slow. Still, she could feel some sort of talent from Gabbro in the way the blade was handled. The closest thing she could liken it to was how the Incubator would describe magical potential. A spark of inspiration, or a high temperature but not quite.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She kept watching, noticing how Gabbro started to speed up. There were still the wasteful movements, but she could definitely see some technique being developed. She likened it to a dance, with long sweeping and swaying motions she wouldn’t expect in combat. Gabbro wasn’t the type Sayaka could take for a dancer, but she supposed the way Gabbro handled their instrument was actually quite similar to the way they were moving. A slow and deliberate pace with sudden, instinctual shifts in movement. It wasn’t exactly good for sword-based combat, but the Hearthians seemed more of a peaceful kind. She could feel Gabbro’s potential laid with a different weapon anyway, though she couldn’t tell which.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Satisfied with their own effort, Gabbro returned the blade to its owner with a look that spelled curiosity. This only seemed to intensify once Sayaka dismissed the blade with a wave of her hand, like she had done the first time they met. On further questioning she held up her hand and focused her magic into a different shape, manifesting a glowing blue circle she normally used to launch herself. They’d both understood that explaining any more would be basically impossible without words, so they let the case linger. Gabbro paid one last look to the strange rock before they both left, making Sayaka wonder if they saw a connection between the two. She’d like to test it, but with the rock being a museum exhibit she wouldn’t be so quick to try. If there were different rocks elsewhere for her to try with, she’d go for it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When they left the museum, the sun had already set and the town seemed to have come alive properly. People were fishing, cutting trees or simply hanging out together. She liked the peacefulness of this town compared to Mitakihara, or most cities on Earth. Whether or not that would help her or bore her, she wasn’t sure. She did still intend to explore this planet and the others for anything else, so for her, hope rang high enough. Gabbro probably wouldn’t mind giving her a hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Once they arrived back at Gabbro’s cabin, the amphibian rolled out a map on their table, gesturing at Sayaka to take a look. It was clearly a map of the planet they were on. The first thing that struck her about it was how sparse it was: There were no forests marked at all, like she had seen from space. Everything important seemed to be in a crater or a geyser. She hadn’t even seen any birds flying around, leading her to guess that there might be very little wildlife at all save for fish. It seemed odd to her, but she wouldn’t claim to be an expert. She would figure out how to ask them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gabbro placed their finger on a place not too far out, a hole marked with trees. They wanted to go there, for whatever reason. Maybe for some work, or something special? Sayaka nodded to give agreement, watching as Gabbro rolled up the map and returned with her to their ship as day broke once more. None of the amphibians along the way seemed to mind or even act surprised at it. With the way Gabbro acted when they first met, she guessed that their style wasn’t normal to these people either, but at least accepted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Soon they were back up in the air, on a quick trip to the grove Gabbro pointed out. It wasn’t big enough to be a forest, but when it first appeared on the tiny horizon, that’s what it looked like: A bunch of trees scattered, some reaching far above the grove and some not much higher, completely obscuring what laid there. Gabbro parked their ship closeby, next to an observation tower of sorts. The two continued on foot, through a natural rock archway into the grove.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was as hospitable as Sayaka had expected, with many tall, thin trees scattered about between a few larger ones. A small stream of water she had seen further back moved out into a small pool with a geyser in the middle, where fireflies - the third species she found here- hovered close to the water’s surface, ever slow but beautiful because of it. Sayaka couldn’t quite tell if anything was special about this place besides this beauty, with nothing quite out of place. A pretty lantern stuck out of the ground, with four signs inscribed with words she couldn’t read. It wasn’t until after a few blinks that she realized why she had been brought here: The trees were moving every time she looked away. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gabbro had their eyes closed, letting Sayaka test things for herself. It didn’t take long before a boulder, one similar to the rock in the museum, appeared in her view. It was tall, about as tall as her and Gabbro combined. A perfect rock to try her magic out on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With her hand to her heart, she transformed for the first time in a while. Her casual clothes seemed to evaporate, turning into droplets of water that revealed a different outfit underneath.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dressed in a more protective magical outfit, of an armor-like button-down top, a cape and a blue asymmetric skirt, Sayaka cautiously approached the boulder and laid her hand on it. She still couldn’t sense a single thing of it, no reason for the rock to behave the way it does. But that feeling did leave it open for a spirit of her own.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She held her sword to the rock, looking for a place to cut it. What Sayaka planned to do was to enchant a piece of the rock, maybe something sword-sized. The whole thing was too big for her to enchant without wasting magic. Her teacher long ago, Mami Tomoe, had the knowledge to properly enchant objects, creating magical weapons out of normal objects. This knowledge had been passed on to Sayaka and though it was far from mastered, it would hopefully serve her here.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With a clean slash and a good grip, Sayaka soon held a blade-shaped piece of the rock in her hand. Her soul concentrated, slowly pouring magic into it like a scientist putting volatile materials together. She and Gabbro held their eyes wide open, not wanting to miss a blink if anything went wrong.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then, in a flash of blue it transformed, becoming something much different from what she expected. Now, in her hand, she held a long cutlass. It still felt like stone, but its sheen was that of metal. It was colored a sea-blue, which seemed to be flowing through the object. From its tip waved a thin strand of fabric, onto which she saw projections of the moon throughout its various phases. It did not necessarily look practical, but she could tell how much power this blade had.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked back to Gabbro, who was just as bewildered as her. They hadn’t  quite known what to expect, after all. If she knew how to thank him, she would. Now, however, all she could do was figure out what this blade could do and utilize it to its greatest potential… somehow.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>And we continue. All critique is appreciated. I also went back and edited some earlier chapters to account for my change in standards. I'll do the same for other chapters down the line.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Intravenous</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Of all things an abandoned spaceship could be, Feldspar would be hard-pressed to say ‘comfortable’. The escape pods they had seen around the solar system were often eerie marks more so than anything else, claustrophobic and cold. The ship they and Homura had found themselves in was, in contrast, warm. Far from homely, but a good place to set up camp after a while of flying.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two had ventured deeper into Dark Bramble, having reached what Feldspar thought felt like the innermost part if there could be such a thing. The air around them felt desolate, the fog was bleaker and less bright and the horizon was devoid of any anglerfish. This ship, devoid of anything but skeletons and the occasional plant, fit in perfectly. They had been hesitant to camp here, but knew that they needed a break. Even Homura had agreed on that part and she looked like she felt at home here, after looking unsettled throughout the bramble proper. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The hasty human had been a good help in putting the camp together, putting up and lighting the fire as well as suggesting they tie their materials down to keep the nigh-zero gravity of their environment in control. She looked worn-out from her flight, but at the same time she carried herself with the twitchiness of someone who would not go to sleep anytime soon. With what they knew about Homura being limited, all they could guess was insomnia, or bad memories returning with today’s events. The kid had been stressed from the start, could use a distraction.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Homura?” They lobbed into the silence, causing the human to look up, surprised. “Want to give the harmonica another go? I think we could do with some music right now, I think a distraction would do you good. And since you don’t have your usual instrument…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Homura hesitated a bit before answering, as if weighing some options. “I… can try. Getting my instrument wouldn’t be too hard actually, I could demonstrate that first.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really now?” Homura nodded and clapped her hands. When her hands separated, a large bellow formed between them, the ends of which were attached to two boxes made of black wood, both of which had many small keys scattered over them. It looked rather complex, but Homura seemed comfortable holding it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It has been a while since I last played this, I only started practicing again a few months ago, too. Please, do not expect a masterpiece out of me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Feldspar waved it off. “Nonsense, I’m sure you’ll do fine. Just show me what you can do.” It was a small tendency of Homura’s they had discovered. She played it off with a nonchalant tone and politeness, but she wasn’t the confident type. It was strange for someone who at first seemed almost smug in her mannerisms to mellow out in that way, but they wouldn’t question a near-stranger that easily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span> The instrument, which Homura had called an accordion, made a sound that Feldspar would call mournful. It was a downcast, high-pitched squeal slowly transitioning from tone to tone. Homura hummed a different melody along with it, perhaps to compensate for a missing accompaniment. It was similarly emphasised by the soft clicking of buttons and the calm contractions of the accordion, like being caught in a tornado on Giant’s Deep, with distant thunder rumbling. It encapsulated the exact moment between being caught in that storm and being flung into space, a loud quiet. Here, it caught Feldspar up in thoughts and strangely enough, a sort of sleepiness that pulled them along. Not wanting to push their thoughts of today away, Feldspar decided to use a meditation technique Gabbro had taught them years ago. Take each thought as it comes and digest it on its own, rather than trying to push it away.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>It had taken some discussion and planning, but Homura and Feldspar had decided on a way to explore the bramble further, secretly steered by a signal Homura could vaguely sense. It was blaring loudly, akin to a cry of distress and the loudest thing by far inside of a planet that cut off her senses. Feldspar didn’t know quite how far Homura’s problems with Dark Bramble reached, but could tell that she wasn’t happy about the abyssal fog, when no sort of walls or vines were in sight. Of course, Feldspar saw Homura as a kid. Not a normal kid, but still someone they would have called a hatchling not too long ago. She wasn’t going to talk about her problem with Dark Bramble, but that wouldn’t stop Feldspar from engaging with her, keeping her focused on the task at hand. When it came to kids, Feldspar knew they all loved exploration and tall tales, at least back home. Homura must’ve had at least a vague interest in going along with them, so she would probably humor them at least.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Luckily, she did. They talked for a good while, slow but steady. She wasn’t prone to talking about herself in detail, but enjoyed speaking of travel, mystery and music. She didn’t know the right words to describe it, but when she was a hatchling she played an instrument called the ‘accordion’, which she had recently picked back up. She said that music was a very extensively developed craft in her home planet. The accordion, apparently, reminded her of the harmonica a bit. That had caught their attention.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Unfortunately, any time to ask for elaboration was cut short when soft lights loomed out of the fog. They were smaller and more clustered than the lights of the territorial anglerfish and, with further inspection, revealed themselves to be entirely artificial. They were lanterns, hanging still from the twisting vines and marking a path one way or the other, though which way neither of them could tell. Homura had decided to take the path eastwards, leading them to a second, more impressive discovery.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That looks like a Nomai escape pod. I’ve seen a few of them around the solar system, in places they made cities. Figures that they would get here, too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Homura hummed as she inspected the ship. It was small by human standards, but it still dwarfed them in size. She would compare its shape to that of a lowercase gamma, made of white and grey metals. Interestingly, its windowed front was aimed towards the way they came from. Had it been trying to leave the bramble?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nomai… who might those be? Our species hasn’t had the luck of meeting extraterrestrials, or even traces of them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“An alien people that lived here long ago. They went extinct before we had the chance to see them, though. They never cleaned up after themselves, giving us a lot of tech to work with for getting into space.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I see. That explains why the remains of your ship clashed the way they did.” Homura nodded as they pried open the entrance. “A shame we couldn’t get it to work. That would have been easier than carrying you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The inside of the ship initially revealed very little of note. It was narrow, with both wides containing rows of strange blue cylinders, about Feldspar-sized, relatively tall. The Hearthian had seen this exact build of ship before and assumed the cylinders to be some advanced sleeping chamber, helping hold many Nomai in the ship. There was very little information to gleam off of these walls, that honor would go to a strange, disc-like rock attached to a device Homura likened to a record player.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Looks like they left some recordings behind. Smart, this can help us figure out what they were doing here. Does your translation trick work on recordings?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...Maybe. Translating speech is closer to translating thought. It works much more differently for recordings.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Despite the doubt, she let the recording play, twice, thrice. She concentrated closely on the sound, letting her magic run its course and gain knowledge from who-knows-where.  “It is rather vague, but it states they need to return to their ‘Vessel’. Apparently they are detecting two signals from this ‘Vessel’ and are choosing the one closest to avoid running out of oxygen. The trail of lights marks their path towards it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Guess we went the right wrong way then. I had some troubles with the signal thing they’re talking about, it’s connected to the way space works around here, since it sort of loops and expands at will. Hope that doesn’t mean they drifted the wrong way. We could find some… unpleasant things at the end of that trail.” Feldspar decided a warning would do well, despite their own curiosity.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Homura nodded, her face set into a determined expression. “That is a risk I’m willing to take.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After a last check of the ship the duo set out once more, following the lights attached to the vines around the ship. The vines seemed to be spiralling, following a path through the darkening fog which was only interrupted by the occasional loose piece of the planet slowly hurtling through. A similar piece, a massive black boulder, hung still at the end of the trail with a seed in its middle. They saw it from a distance, quickly presuming it to be the signal the Nomai had followed, and were quick to discover their prediction was unfortunately correct. They were hardly surprised, but that did not leave the sight any less grizzling. Surrounding the glowing seed were a dozen green space suits, made for bipeds, floating helplessly in the air. They wore strangely-shaped helmets with three eye-holes, with no eyes left to see through. None of the suits were intact and their wear and tear showed only bone beneath.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Feldspar turnt to Homura and was surprised to see the youngling almost blank-faced. Not indifference, not entirely anyway, but more of a quiet resignation. Another strange side of the kid, though it wasn’t like they were one to talk when their reaction amounted to morbid surprise.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“You alright, Homura?” The girl turned to them as if she’d forgotten they were there, but quickly turned her expression to an intentional dullness.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, there is no need to worry.” Homura paused, before hesitantly elaborating: “I suppose there is a sort of familiarity to this sight, beyond that of death. Being deceived into thinking salvation is nigh, before everything gets taken away from you.” She slowly floated closer, between the floating bodies, and grasped at an object she saw there. “I would ask the same of you, but you don’t seem particularly affected either.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can thank the space program for that, I guess. When you’re the one testing every prototype, you get used to the risk of death. Seeing it here isn’t pleasant, but not as shocking. You learn to understand it eventually.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Perhaps Feldspar’s eyes deceived them in that moment, but to them Homura looked pleased. Like she had gained a sort of respect for them. “You are quite courageous, I must say. I understand why your people think so highly of you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s nothing, really. You’ve done some daredevil stuff of your own, haven’t you? It’s the essence of space travel.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Homura didn’t reply to that, leaving Feldspar to wonder what salvation Homura had referred to, what had been taken away. The kid obviously wasn’t entirely alright, with sudden shifts in mood, from teasing to serious to downcast in a moment. Even now her little comments seemed inappropriate for the situation, even if a welcome distraction. Still, Homura couldn’t be more than fourteen years old by Feldspar’s estimation. It left things worth questioning, but they could tell there was more of a border there than in Hearthian culture. They would need time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Once they had given the ‘grave’ a last moment of silence, the two made a decision on how to continue their journey. Feldspar had concluded that since the seed was giving off the signal, it was a portal to their vessel. They would simply need to find another exit by planting a new signal there. For that, they took out their most trusted tool, the scout launcher. It looked primitive, being a small gravity cannon attached to a wooden barrel, but what it shot was of immense worth: A small, multi-camera probe that could be tracked over immense distances. With some curiosity from Homura’s gaze they lined up the scout and launched it into a hole in the seed, watching the distance meter tick up by several hundred meters as it entered. Once it stopped, they soon found the two signals the Nomai had trouble with, one from the seed and one further out, towards an orange light. That was their ticket.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They left the grave with haste, not wanting to disturb it any more than they already had. The signal was easily tracked, with only the question of how it could shine orange. If it was the light of the Vessel, the Nomai would have known to go there first. That meant that whatever was waiting for them there was likely dangerous, perhaps a larger kind of angler fish.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They didn’t quite find that however, when they entered the plant and the air grew threateningly still. The lights of the angler fish grew more encompassing, with three of them hovering so close to the entrance that Feldspar nor Homura dared breathe, out of fear they would be alerted. Since the fish didn’t seem to see them, their sound was the only thing they could hope to push back before anything happened. The soft, rumbling cries of the fish were already loud enough to give them chills, hearing anything louder out of the beasts would not be a welcome thing even for the daredevil and a girl who’d seen worse disasters. Despite everything she had seen, Homura still felt small in the face of such creatures. Her ego was still rather prone to getting tarnished it seemed. After all, these fish had lingered in a space created by her magic; who knew if that had rubbed off on them?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This space, they soon found out, was more like a nest for the anglerfish. About in its center, far off from the signal, hung a cluster of large orange eggs reflecting the lights of their parents. Despite her interest, Homura decided not to investigate these eggs for any anomalies she could have inflicted on them. This part felt dreadful, magically so, and she did not want to stay here any longer than necessary.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was a relief when the next seed appeared in the distance, as marked by the signal. Unlike its peers it did not radiate any light, making it look dead. When they flew inside of it, they were met with a soft yellow fog that felt more clingy, more alive than the fog they had been passing through before, as if the sudden lack of anglerfish gave it a moment to gasp for air.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Finally they arrived at the end of their trail, when looming not too far was a massive ship, cleanly white save for the massive vines penetrating its hull and leaving a large opening. It had four long arms and a dome up top. Clearly this ship was made to hold a lot of people. It had to be the Nomai vessel.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They carefully maneuvered inside, curious what they would find.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>By now, Feldspar had fallen asleep, lulled into it by a spell Homura had woven into the music. She had needed a moment of alone time, a moment to see to the ship by herself. They had made their camp in the only conventionally-accessible room of the ship, with the rest blocked off by too many vines and doors. And even then, Homura had asked to take a break before they went any further. Feldspar had found it suspicious but interpreted it as a sign of openness and complied.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Homura’s accordion vanished with a wave of her hand as she surveyed the room. There were walls with the signature scribbling of the Nomai, similar to the inscriptions on the recordings she translated but even more difficult. There was a pillar that seemed to need some kind of input, though she didn’t understand how it worked. There was also a receptacle for what she assumed to be similar a Warp Core: A device the Incubators had developed to travel large distances through space in no time. There was an open space with a slot to enter an item, and next to it floated an object with a relatively similar design, of two glass-like pyramids with the tips opposing each other like an hourglass. Unfortunately, it was broken, with none of its actual cores present. Some issue with their light-speed travel must have caused them to appear here.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Still, it was nothing she could work with just yet. That would be a bit down, under the ship’s bridge: A blue holographic projection depicting a round shape. It had complex patterns on its inside and various lines jutting out. Its middle was an open circle, almost like the pupil of an eye. She had quickly captured its image, wondering what it could mean and why she felt a sense of reverence as she looked upon it. When she spotted another recording disk floating close to it, she quickly gained her answer.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“-appears to be older than the universe itself!”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It spoke of a signal, a place older than the universe. An opportunity.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A new form of hope.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Homura truly, genuinely smiled and returned to their campsite. She did not even contemplate the thought of sleep. Rather, she picked up the harmonica Feldspar had laid down next to his bed roll and began to play it. A little practice wouldn’t hurt, especially not on a fun instrument. Especially not when maybe, just maybe, she had found the breakthrough point. </span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Had to do a lot of thoughts on chapter order and how much attention I should be giving to different characters. I need to put some more of that spotlight on Homura, kind of did so today. Some of my plans are changing to accommodate what I've already written, plans might change. Hope it'll make things a better read.</p><p>Also, trying a new, less vague summary. Hope that makes things better.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Ascent of Burning Moths</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Humans were an exceedingly rare occurrence within the walls of Homura Akemi’s home, usually only reserved for the house’s master, her spirits and her intergalactic associate. Not a lot of humans were trusted enough to be allowed inside, with the few chosen ones being either one-time visits by allies, or trusted ‘soldiers’ of Akemi’s gathered for emergency meetings. Today, the time had come for the latter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Incubator’s, or perhaps Kyubey’s footsteps echoed softly as it entered the planning room. It had continued to use its human form, outfitted in a plain white t-shirt and jeans, finding that its so-called contemporaries had favourable reactions towards it, for as much as that mattered. If it examined the thought closer, it would find that it did start mattering. Regardless, regardless, it mustn't digress.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The planning room looked more like an antique cafe than anything military or efficient, with a dark oak round table and a beige-carpeted floor below a chandelier, surrounded by various types of old furniture Akemi had gotten from who-knows-where. Two of the chairs were already occupied by two women, magical women, Akemi had taken a liking to. Neither had clothes to match the room, one dressed in modern streetwear and the other in a neon black-and-purple tracksuit, both with hair in a shade of purple. That dissonance had never occured to it before, either.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good morning, Rosetta and Philae Newton. We thank you for your presence today. Things have turned dire as of recent, your aid will prove important. Are there any questions before we begin?” Both shook their heads, leading it to continue. “As we speak, Sayaka has regained her memories and been displaced off-world. We have recently detected unrecognized signals from the solar system where she is believed to be, leading us to believe she could become a threat. Simultaneously, Kyouko Sakura and Madoka Kaname have grown suspicious of her absence and the world as a whole, with reason to distrust myself. Thus, they are at risk of realizing this world in its entirety, which will prove disastrous despite Akemi’s supposed failsafes.” They explained in short order, pacing around. “Our preferable strategy at the moment is that one of you two goes to apprehend Sayaka Miki, while the other helps deal with her friends in whatever way we see fit. Do you accept this task?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The magical women nodded after a short exchange of glances. “We accept. Do we get to decide who goes where?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That is alright with me. I am not familiar with your achievements, but as Homura Akemi trusts you two I will leave the privilege in your care.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Works for me. Say, Philae, how ‘bout you let me deal with the kids up here and you play whack-a-mole with ol’ Sayaka?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Philae, the woman dressed in the track-suit, shrugged. “I think that would be fine, but I believe you’re a much better matchup for her than me. You’ve got more tools to keep her down. What’s the argument here?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If something goes wrong down here, you fuck up and return their memories or something, you can’t change anything. I’ve got my magic to put it back into shape. No guarantee, but it should work.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I suppose.” Philae relented, faking annoyance. “Don’t get angry with me if Sayaka doesn’t return in one piece, okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was simple, but optimal strategic thinking, a similar train of thought to how The Incubator would have selected them. It had seen the duo in action before, though never separately. They were excellent together, but it could only assume it would go the same when they were apart.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We have already accounted for the possibility of grievous injury, there is no need to consider it.” It claimed, gesturing for the two to follow it. “All you need to keep an eye on is her Soul Gem. We have not properly mapped out its mechanics within this world, but as she is entwined with her Witch form, having it turn black could prove disastrous. Sayaka Miki’s healing output will eventually lessen if that is the case. That should be your chance to knock her out.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hmh, heard of that. Rosetta had to engage her in combat once. Kid keeps getting back up, hm?” Philae spoke off-handedly. Once they had left the room, she put on a black baseball cap and a face mask, black with the word ‘DIE’ written on it in graffiti-stylized letters. “I’ll find a solution, as long as you can get me on location. It is better to worry about Rosetta, that situation seems more complicated to me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rosetta agreed, making her way next to the Incubator as they ascended a flight of stairs, to the very highest floor. “Yeah, Philae beating the shit out of Sayaka’s not too difficult to understand, but with me… can’t expect me to infiltrate a group of kids ten years younger than me, can you? Am I s’posed to just blur trails or actively dissuade them?” She asked, running a hand through her short hair to fix some pins.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whatever is necessary. Sabotage, hiding evidence and staying around them. They are distrustful of me and this house, leading me to believe they will return here soon enough. Having you speak with them is more believable than myself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gotcha, thanks.” A grin crept onto her face as ideas started to form. She seemed more of the scheming type than her partner, in that respect. She soon returned to said partner’s side, engaging in idle conversation, things of everyday life.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As if it was curious about what the two were saying, the Incubator kept a close ear on them. There really was nothing special about the things they said, but the way the two carried themselves was what interested it. The sparks and embers of emotion that had come to life in its soul reacted to the sound of the couple amicably joking or planning their next few days as if one wasn’t about to go into space. It was as good as confirmed that its emotional capabilities were growing stronger, as if empathizing with the love many magical girls wished for and the despair Akemi sank to so often.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It failed to suppress a shiver, a reaction neither of the magical women missed. A memory had come to it unbidden, of the first weeks in Akemi’s world, every day spent tortured under her heels. It had pushed the memories away the moment it was over. Its emotions loosened that grip it had on its brain, bringing it the thoughts of actual despair.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It was merely a draft.” It claimed as the silence of the women stretched on. “I am still not entirely used to this body, its behaviour with temperatures is unusual. There is no need to keep attention on myself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Neither Rosetta nor Philae looked like they believed them, but they returned to their gossip soon enough. Meanwhile, it focused on the stairway and the sensations of its human muscles stretching, diverting its attention away from the memories. Perhaps the Collective knew something deeper about it, even if it already had an inkling towards what happened.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It opened a hatch to the roof, where the telescope had suddenly disappeared in the place of a ship, large enough for one human. Its design was similar in appearance to a teardrop, aerodynamic for its launch period and light enough to carry its driver far. Philae, who seemed to trust the Incubator technology, jumped into the ship with little hesitation, priming everything according to the Incubator’s instructions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Once the warp engine has completed its trajectory, you will have to manually steer the craft for a moment. It uses a special gravity engine for a slingshotting flight, made by projecting gravitational fields. I believe you might find it tempting to launch yourself through this process, so I must ask that you do not.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Philae looked at it with an expression that told it she was absolutely intending to do so. “I don’t think you mean that. You wouldn’t have told me about it otherwise. Right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The incubator tilted its head, a gesture that looked stranger in its human body. “Touche. Are you ready to launch?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Almost. Would you mind giving me and Rosetta a moment? Just want to say goodbye.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It did as asked, seating itself at the launch computer while Philae and Rosetta said their goodbyes and exchanged a kiss, one of those human customs it didn’t understand either.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Soon enough Rosetta returned and, with little ceremony, the Incubator pressed a button and the craft silently flew into the air, soon vanishing from sight altogether as the ship entered its warp. They watched the sky for a few seconds more, before descending the stairs into the house’s main rooms once more. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Madoka Kaname and Kyouko Sakura will arrive tomorrow afternoon at the lastest, based on my estimations. To aid in preparations, you are free to stay the night in one of the guest rooms.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sounds fine. Better than staying alone, even if it’s not a big difference with you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It shook its head. Akemi had her fair degree of influence over her troops, and with it came their fondness of antagonizing it, subtly and blatantly. It was used to taking it in stride, as it had done for millennia, but like everything these days, it had become different. Unfortunately, Rosetta had noticed it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s this, Incubator? Don’t tell me you can’t take a rib all of a sudden. All these new feelings getting you down?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I must ask that you do not inquire about my ‘emotional state’.The Collective is also concerned about it. I can imagine that the source does not elude you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Akemi, right?” Rosetta snapped her finger. “Since her magic comes from being highly emotional and you’re near her all the time. Probably got some residue from that in your system.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Correct. It seems like I am the only one affected by this, so the rest are trying to minimize the perceived damage done. This is of course difficult in the current situation, but at least they have not discounted my usefulness because of it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They’ll get something out of it, don’t worry. I told you before, you can get some stuff out of it. My dad always said that when you know empathy, you learn the buttons you need to press easier. Helps with manipulation.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I have never needed emotions to be capable of what humans describe as ‘manipulation’. I doubt there will be any benefit to this, once our situation is resolved.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ll learn to appreciate it, once everything’s over and done and you learn to go past all the shitty stuff. I mean, what else are you gonna do once your quotas are gone? Might as well blend in entirely, get some friends. Heck, just become a magical person and join the gang, could be fun.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Incubator tilted its head, not quite catching the train of thought Rosetta rode.  She quickly elaborated: “You partially grant our wishes through our emotional energy. Now that you’re becoming an individual with feelings and stuff you can go to your boss and make a wish, get a cute dress and all that. Also, since you seemed so interested just now, you could probably have a go at love. Would be hilarious if you ask me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It chose to ignore the last sentence. “I will figure something out when the time comes. The Incubator race is one of purpose and I believe that will not change until the end.” However soon that end would be. It had to be realistic in that aspect.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, you’ll need a hobby. We’ll have to work on that.” Rosetta decided, pausing by a split in the hallway. “Room’s this way, if it didn’t shift again. I’m gonna go to sleep. You figure something out, maybe make some extra proposals.” She turned away from the Incubator with a sleepy grin. “Maybe consider telling me about the ‘off-world situation’, it sounds dire. Think we deserve to know by now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We will consider it.” The Incubator replied vaguely, turning in the direction of the research stations. “In the meantime, since you seem so… fond of the idea, consider referring to me as Kyubey or Quaid. That seems to match up with the ‘individual’ you proposed.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It continued, pretending that that sentence was motivated entirely by Rosetta’s banter as it sat down before the computers. A purple lizard was perched on one of the many keyboards, waiting for it as the time to research began.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>When, hours later, Kyubey was dragged from its workstation and told they were going to Mitakihara Mall, it was understandably surprised. It hadn’t even been given the opportunity to turn off the computers before being thrown a plain jacket and made to follow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For what reason are you dragging me along, Rosetta?” It spoke quietly amidst the throngs of people visiting, even on a working day.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Simple: I didn’t wanna wait for the kids to turn up later. The data says they tend to visit here after school and I’m willing to guess they’ll be here to plan out their next visit. Kyouko seems the scheming type. We’ll nip it in the bud early, I’ve got it all laid out. Also, just as important,” Rosetta grinned in a way Kyubey had started to call ‘devilish’, “Your wardrobe’s pretty fucking boring. You’re the rep of your species, need to look good.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was willing to concede the first point. Rosetta was impatient and functioned better in a more unpredictable conversation outside of the home field. It wouldn’t have sacrificed the advantage, but guessed that it worked into Rosetta’s plan. The second point, though…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I am not officially representing anyone, I am hardly meant to be seen outside.” This time, it spoke telepathically. “Looking for an outfit would be a waste of time and I recommend we refrain from it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good point, but it helps the plan, trust me. Less suspicious if we have wares when we meet then. Also, wanna test if you’re developing stuff like preferences. You would be bearable if you had emotions, can’t let that slip.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In the end, Kyubey resigned itself to following Rosetta regardless. She was the most trustworthy out of the two and could at least recover any consequences from her mistake, unlike itself. All it could hope for was that she didn’t make it look like a fool.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>Exactly 32 minutes later, Kyubey found that it looked like a fool. Rosetta had made it wear various combinations of sweaters, skirts, jeans and articles it didn’t have words for, quickly filling up a bag with things Kyubey thought were socially acceptable. It was playing along because it lacked the power to do anything, but it had grown fed up. Perhaps if it picked something for itself they could move on quicker. The clothing it created through the magical system was based on the subconscious whims of the wearers, leaving its own sense of fashion lacking, but it had learned what humans found aesthetically pleasing in the sense of color.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It had made its choices soon enough, selecting a cold gray shirt with a brand imprinted in blue, accompanied by ripped grey jeans with brighter blue high socks. After topping it off with a black scarf and fake golden armbands, Kyubey found that, interestingly, it felt positive emotions when it saw itself in the mirror. The jumpy feeling couldn’t quite be described as anything else. Rosetta grinned at the sight of Kyubey’s slow shift. “That’s what I was looking for. Come on, lesgo pay for all of these, then you can put it on. I think the times have lined up.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Soon enough the two had left the shop, using Kyubey’s keen sense of magic to track down their targets’ magical signatures. Though they technically weren’t  magical girls anymore, their magic was still unlocked, leaving them easier to sense.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I sense Mami Tomoe, Madoka Kaname and Kyouko Sakura not too far away. Based on the time of day, I assume they have just finished a meal. Should we move to interact?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, but keep a telepathic ear out. I’ll probably handle it alone since they don’t trust you. I’ll give you a sign when it’s time to move.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It nodded in assent before moving up a set of stairs, soon spotting the signature hair colors of the most difficult girls it ever had to deal with.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>Madoka had simple intentions when she took her friends to the mall: Inform Mami of the situation, make a plan together and figure out how to get more information out of Quaid. Mami and Kyouko had made a plan that turned out more illegal than she liked, but she was outvoted on that front. Hearing the discussion about what was essentially a break-in felt strangely normal to her, until it was interrupted by a feeling of wrongness. It didn’t quite make sense, but on pure intuition she -and based on their expressions, the others too- could tell someone unpleasant was near, someone familiar. When Madoka and Kyouko saw Quaid’s purple-streaked white hair in the crowd they exchanged nods and Kyouko went the other direction, mentioning something about ‘getting more food’. Mami was confused by their exchange until she saw the person her friends referred to as Quaid Baren in front of them. They were accompanied by a caucasian woman with dark purple hair, hands tucked into the pockets of a cropped black jacket. Madoka seemed surprised to see her, and found her eyes drawn to the woman’s left hand, on which she wore a silver ring with a purple gem set into it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yo, kid. You’re Madoka Kaname, right?” The woman spoke, diverting her attention. Upon a quick confirmation by the pinkette, she continued. “Great, I was hoping to find you. Quaid over there,” She pointed her thumb at the albino, “Told me about the whole… situation, with your friend and miss Akemi. Been there, I know it sucks, so I wanted to see if I could help out. Seems like the right thing to do.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mami and Madoka remained silent for a moment, thinking, before Mami spoke up: “That is very kind of you, ma’am. Would you like to join us at the cafe?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sounds great, miss.” The woman nodded and glanced towards Quaid, who took it as their queue to leave, for whatever reason. “The name’s Rosetta Newton, by the way. Nice to meet you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mami Tomoe, likewise.” Mami returned, leading the trio into a cafe, despite having already eaten. “I must say, I didn’t expect Akemi to have an active social circle. I’ve rarely spoken to her, but she is usually rather-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gloomy and unapproachable?” Rosetta guessed. “Wouldn’t be wrong, she needs a while to warm up to people. Me ‘n my wife met her last year in America, she helped us out in a pinch. Took us a while to strike up with her, but we became friends pretty quickly. The air around her is heavy, but she’s cool for a kid.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Madoka smiled at that. Despite Homura’s stand-offish behaviour, being short with everyone, she could tell there was something good inside of the girl. It was nice to see her gut feeling be justified.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I suppose you know her well, then. Has she ever spoken about Miki Sayaka to you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rosetta nodded, nursing the milkshake she ordered in her right hand. Madoka noticed that she also wore a ring on that hand, golden and closer to her idea of a wedding ring. It made her wonder what that other ring was for and why it caught her attention the way it did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, a few times. Nothing too positive, just tired mentions in rants. I can tell you they never got along and I’m pretty sure they’ve thrown hands once or twice. She mentioned Sayaka to me before she went off to Tokyou, but I didn’t catch anything specific. Never figured out why they’re so pissed with each other, either. It’s a great mystery.” She trailed the sentence off, leaving room for the teenagers to ask more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hehe, I guess so.” Madoka half-agreed. “Sayaka never explained it to us either, she just said things about Homura being ‘evil’. I-i don’t agree with her, of course, but I wonder what happened for her to think that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rosetta hummed, before suggesting: “I think it’s like ‘hate at first sight’. Can’t help but dislike someone sometimes. I had it with Quaid and Homura and Sayaka got it with each other. Difference is that since they’re kids, they aren’t trying to do anything about it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Madoka sighed, disappointed that they hadn’t learned anything new. Still, she could at least have this knowledge for later. “I guess we might have to do something about it, once we find them. How did you get past it with Quaid?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stopped being a bitch about it, first of all. Other than that, common goal. Helps you realize the things you share. Sometimes people just don’t work out, but from what I know it ain’t a lost cause between those two. I’ll start lo-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Whatever promise she was about to make was rudely interrupted by the shrill cries of her mobile phone, which she looked at with surprise. She voiced a quick, but hasty ‘Sorry, gotta take this’ before opening the call. Madoka tuned out the conversation to consider what had been said. Rosetta certainly acted like she didn’t know everything, and the pinkette was sure enough of that. But, she had to know at least a bit more than she let on. The assumptions she’d made about Homura and Sayaka’s relationship were accurate, but if Homura’s rants were anything like Sayaka’s, ‘lost cause’ was a term that came very close, even for Madoka. Besides, when they’d noticed Quaid in the crowd, they and Rosetta were making a beeline for them, as if they were looking for the girls. Tiny details, but with Quaid considered strange even by their friends, Madoka couldn’t help but be suspicious.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh? You found something for the Miki case?” Madoka’s train of thought was derailed as Rosetta spoke those words. “I’ll be right there, give me a second.” She said almost smugly as she pocketed the phone and stood up, motioning for Madoka and Mami to follow. “Wanna come along? I don’t think you want to miss this one.”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ah, dialogue. Hard to practice, as always. </p><p>Introduction of Rosetta and Philae Newton. Retconned the former's speech pattern, this is much more bearable to write and read. The two are named after the space probes more so than the Stone and Obelisk. Wasn't entirely sure about using Original Characters in this equation, but it made sense from a worldbuilding perspective and it helps with some parts of the storyline.</p><p>Another fun fact, this chapter was made before chapter Intravenous. Had to change the order to properly account for character coverage. Usually don't release chapters so soon after each other.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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